[lbo-talk] Saturday

Alan Rudy alan.rudy at gmail.com
Fri Oct 29 21:04:01 PDT 2010


Um, we live in a country were the most mainstream sociological insights (seeing personal troubles as related to social issues and historical and global trends) are flabbergasting, verging on the unimaginable, and just plain radical for most US citizens... in that light, putting political material in even short term comparative historical snarky context is genuinely better than most all of the mass media. That's not to say its good, or left, or all that funny (besides apparent zingers), just better'n most. Or at least that's how I see it.

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 8:56 PM, <CGreen7223 at aol.com> wrote:


>
> Stewart likes to portray himself as a wise moderate standing in between
> the extremes of right and left. He thinks he's pretty cool. I don't think
> Stewart is that funny but that's personal taste. I think the reporters on
> the
> show are funnier than he is as is Colbert. I think it is a sign of the
> benighted state of our country when the Daily Show, Colbert and Bill Maher
> are
> the most intelligent forums in the mass media today. Stewart, or the Daily
> Show writers who do his bits for him, says some intelligent things, is
> moderately decent on Israel, etc. I don't get it when people talk about
> the
> Daily Show as if it is a really profound left-progressive media outlet. I
> guess
> people are just hungry for any sign of modest intelligence in the mass
> media. But some people talk about him like he's a deep thinker or IF Stone
> or
> Ben Bagdikian or something. The Daily Show does a good job pointing out
> certain vapid performances on TV news outlets but it is not often that the
> satire provides you with any look at the real nature of powerful
> institutions
> in this country. I know, I know, it's a comedy show but some people treat
> it like it is more than that. Stewart is pretty much a conventional
> moderate liberal thinker, even though he gives occasional evidence that he
> is
> aware of radical ideas and thinkers like Chomsky. He has several times
> referred to Hugo Chavez as a brutal dictator.
>
> Chris Green
> _http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=44901401_<http://www.facebook.com/#%21/profile.php?id=44901401_>
> (http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=44901401<http://www.facebook.com/#%21/profile.php?id=44901401>
> )
>
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-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319



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