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defrogIf you’ve read this miserable excuse for a blog for any length of time, you’ll know I don’t give a rat’s ass about political sex scandals. They’re a dime a dozen – wherever there's power, money and ego, there's going to be shenanigans. The only reason they make news at all is (1) the media loves a good sex story, (2) the only thing their respective audiences love more a good sex story is denouncing the person(s) involved for being immoral scumbags (see: daytime TV talk shows), and (3) politicians who get caught in sex scandals usually tend to be politicians who spend a lot of time lecturing us against the very thing they were caught doing (cheating on wives, renting hookers, being gay, all three at once, etc).
Anyway, maybe that’s why one of the REALLY big stories to emerge from this episode seems to be Jon Stewart’s failure to unleash the Comedy Kraken on Anthony Weiner the same way he has with other political sex scandals.
Which is a silly thing to be complaining about.
For a start, Stewart has made no secret of the fact that he’s been friends with Weiner since college. So obviously he’s going to have a conflict of interest, although clearly not to the point of ignoring the story completely. (And people were complimenting him for that, so I don’t know what they were expecting last night.)
Also, as comedy material goes, one of the things the Weiner scandal is lacking (compared to, say, Eliot Spitzer or Larry Craig) is a politician who got caught doing things he told other people they should never do. In that sense, one good thing you could say about the Anthony Weiner episode is that he never made a point of criticizing people for sexting on Twitter. (Also, he didn’t get his wife to stand next to him during his confession/apology. Points for that.)
And let’s admit it, the only reason Weiner’s sex scandal is news is his surname. Okay – that, and he lied, and alsohe was an idiot to think he could send pictures of himself on the Internet and not be found out.
But mostly the name. And there’s only so much comedy there (unless yr Beavis and Butthead, then “Weiner” jokes never, ever get old).
Also, the criticism against Stewart for pulling punches seems based on the notion that Stewart has some kind of responsibility to be objective when picking his targets – which I assume is rooted in the continuous belief that Stewart is practicing some form of journalism, because to my knowledge comedy has never required comedians to give equal treatment to both sides.
I’ve covered this before. And considering that Stewart’s ratings are going up while most of Fox News’ big names are losing viewers, the ongoing confusion is understandable.
Still, Stewart may have been the only TV personality to go relatively easy on Weiner, but he still handled it with more class than most, particularly given their friendship.
Meanwhile, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this as the story develops and new juicy details emerge. Which means I get to see my Facebook page filled with f***ing “Huh huh Weiner huh huh” jokes from my conservative friends for the rest of the month.
Still, after all the gay sex scandals that anti-gay GOP politicians have been caught up in, I guess they feel they’ve earned the right to gloat a little, so who am I to be critical?
With friends like these,
This is dF
Anyway, maybe that’s why one of the REALLY big stories to emerge from this episode seems to be Jon Stewart’s failure to unleash the Comedy Kraken on Anthony Weiner the same way he has with other political sex scandals.
Which is a silly thing to be complaining about.
For a start, Stewart has made no secret of the fact that he’s been friends with Weiner since college. So obviously he’s going to have a conflict of interest, although clearly not to the point of ignoring the story completely. (And people were complimenting him for that, so I don’t know what they were expecting last night.)
Also, as comedy material goes, one of the things the Weiner scandal is lacking (compared to, say, Eliot Spitzer or Larry Craig) is a politician who got caught doing things he told other people they should never do. In that sense, one good thing you could say about the Anthony Weiner episode is that he never made a point of criticizing people for sexting on Twitter. (Also, he didn’t get his wife to stand next to him during his confession/apology. Points for that.)
And let’s admit it, the only reason Weiner’s sex scandal is news is his surname. Okay – that, and he lied, and alsohe was an idiot to think he could send pictures of himself on the Internet and not be found out.
But mostly the name. And there’s only so much comedy there (unless yr Beavis and Butthead, then “Weiner” jokes never, ever get old).
Also, the criticism against Stewart for pulling punches seems based on the notion that Stewart has some kind of responsibility to be objective when picking his targets – which I assume is rooted in the continuous belief that Stewart is practicing some form of journalism, because to my knowledge comedy has never required comedians to give equal treatment to both sides.
I’ve covered this before. And considering that Stewart’s ratings are going up while most of Fox News’ big names are losing viewers, the ongoing confusion is understandable.
Still, Stewart may have been the only TV personality to go relatively easy on Weiner, but he still handled it with more class than most, particularly given their friendship.
Meanwhile, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this as the story develops and new juicy details emerge. Which means I get to see my Facebook page filled with f***ing “Huh huh Weiner huh huh” jokes from my conservative friends for the rest of the month.
Still, after all the gay sex scandals that anti-gay GOP politicians have been caught up in, I guess they feel they’ve earned the right to gloat a little, so who am I to be critical?
With friends like these,
This is dF
