no my point isnt that SC is braver or smarter than MM. i think we all agree with most of MM's socio/political possitions. but i dont think his later projects are what they appear to be. they appear to be rational investigations, like 60 minutes or bill moyers "now". thats not what they are. they are totally loaded with charged support materiel. they are button pushers that sell his point. his role as common man is played deadpan. no winks no nods. thats disengenious. im all for david using everything on his tool belt to slay goliath. its not a level playing field so david may employ anything necessicary since he's at a disadvantage. including emotional button pushing, sarcasm and ambush journalism techniques. that worked in a roger and me context but it underminds his (and our) moral high ground in columbine and fahrenheit. in those cases he still resolved the story with a david/goliath model but that is not his relations to those issues (wrongness of gun crazy american law and the corruptness of bush and co). those two issues would be better mediated in a "just the facts mam" bill moyers "now" style take down. one where the film maker is not part of the story. mainly because the evidence of wrong doing is so transparent and so profound. it doesnt take emotional button pushing or other exaggerated means to make the point because the strength of the evidence speaks for it self.
stewart begat colbert. the interesting part of the JS DS to me is the monolog and the interviews. i think we can agree that stewart pulls punches when needed. otherwise he wouldnt keep getting big gun guests like colin powell. i really dont have too much use for political skits, so i wasnt all that keen on SC prior to the banquet. I dont waste too much time on the onion either.
then something wonderful happened. they accidently book colbert for the WH press corps diner. they invited him, they fucked up. so SC betters yippee pieman aron kay and does something truly incredible. something john kerry forgot to do. something JS probably wouldnt/couldnt do. (visa vi mocking ironic endorsement) he read to bushs face a laundry list of corrupt acts that have been perpetrated on the american people and the world at large. and he used their lie of a setting to implicate press complicity. this was not an ambush, that banana cream pie was presented to SC on a platter. like hitting the guerilla comic lottery. they naively asked him to do his job. executed with pure honesty he gave everyone a big WINK to let us know he was in character and that it was SC CR business as usual. the wink came in form of the patented colbert "point" which said: "fasten your seat belts folks im getting ready to do the president - big time." as sally points out MM dont wink.
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stewart begat colbert. the interesting part of the JS DS to me is the monolog and the interviews. i think we can agree that stewart pulls punches when needed. otherwise he wouldnt keep getting big gun guests like colin powell. i really dont have too much use for political skits, so i wasnt all that keen on SC prior to the banquet. I dont waste too much time on the onion either.
then something wonderful happened. they accidently book colbert for the WH press corps diner. they invited him, they fucked up. so SC betters yippee pieman aron kay and does something truly incredible. something john kerry forgot to do. something JS probably wouldnt/couldnt do. (visa vi mocking ironic endorsement) he read to bushs face a laundry list of corrupt acts that have been perpetrated on the american people and the world at large. and he used their lie of a setting to implicate press complicity. this was not an ambush, that banana cream pie was presented to SC on a platter. like hitting the guerilla comic lottery. they naively asked him to do his job. executed with pure honesty he gave everyone a big WINK to let us know he was in character and that it was SC CR business as usual. the wink came in form of the patented colbert "point" which said: "fasten your seat belts folks im getting ready to do the president - big time." as sally points out MM dont wink.
- bill 5-04-2006 9:43 pm