Ingraham says awful things, this was dumb, disrespectful, and cruel. She’s terrible.
I wish the many people that rightfully oppose Ingraham’s conduct would stop stooping to a similar low about right-wingers. There’s a constant flood of insults and mockery about Mitch McConnell’s and Ted Cruz’s appearance, for example. And the defense is always “oh they deserve it, they’re awful people.”
It pollutes the conversation and undermines valid complaints about Ingraham, Trump, and all the other gross insults coming from the right.
Is there? From mainstream national news anchors/hosts of news programs? From D politicians on the national stage?
Comparing what some rando (even if they’re an actor) says on Twitter or a blog to what pols and “news” personalities say is like comparing apples and aircraft carriers.
Absolutely. Trevor Noah on The Daily Show just did a whole bit insulting Mitch McConnell’s appearance.
(If you do not believe that The Daily Show and other political comedy shows like Colbert, Samantha Bee, etc. fill the same entertainment+information niche for liberals/the left as Laura Ingraham, Rush, and the like do for the right, I believe you may misunderstand them.)
Drawing parallels does not mean drawing equivalence. Right-wing news entertainers are absolutely worse about this, and they have been bouyed by the politicians they support like Drumpf that create the space for it. So far, Democratic and left politicians are largely refrained from this, and that is good. I hope that continues.
I think liberals and the left are making great progress on pushing the culture away from insulting and judging people of their immutable characteristics. I would love to see that extend even further to be unacceptable to do even for people you disagree with politically and even people you think are horrible.
“They did it first!” and “they do it worse!” isn’t good enough for my kids, for myself, and I don’t want it to be good enough for the political parties and communities that I support. We can do better.
Comedy Shows, hosted by comedians, should not be held to the same standards as News shows, hosted by news anchors. You expect comedians to make fun of people for silly reasons, you do not expect your news anchors or politicians to do so.
You should not be holding programs on a station named “Fox News”, which pro-ports to impart news (except when arguing in a court of law), to programs on a station named “Comedy Central”, which pro-ports to impart comedy.
While I mostly agree with you, as @dreamofthedarkstar writes, Ingraham is an anchor on “Fox News.” When they drop the lie that they present “news” or drop the propaganda pundits like Ingraham, Carlson, Hannity, Pirro, etc., then your point is valid.
When Ingraham has a show on Comedy Central, she can say this shit for giggles (and get subsequently dropped for making fun of people with a disability, just like Noah would be if he did the same.).
Maybe I do misunderstand them. But if not, I feel a great sadness for people who think Ingraham or Rush are “funny.” It’s such a bitter, small and angry humor
And just to be totally clear, I am in total agreement that we (all of us) should not stoop to criticizing public figures (or anyone, really) for things like physical appearance or disabilities or any of the other shit we have no control over. Keep the criticism to the decisions people make and how that effects the rest of us.
“Humor” for people who are incapable of laughing at themselves.
Still, I’m of the opinion that Fox legally should not be able to publish it as “news” though and should be required to clearly mark it as “comedy” throughout the episodes.
It’s funny how it’s “punching down” when it’s a news-entertainment personality on the right mocking the President of the United States, but it’s “punching up” when it’s a news-entertainment personality on the liberal/left mocking a United States Senator.
Do you think it’s “punching up” or “punching down” when the right-wing nuts mock the appearance of a liberal/left politician? They definitely do that, and it’s bad.
I think judging which immutable characteristics are fair game for mockery leads us nowhere.
Just as a note, Rush was legit a comedy figure. (I do not think he was funny.) But his shows had a lot of humor, mainly political but a lot of it not. I think if there was a Mirror Universe Limbaugh that did pretty much the same thing, but did against right-wing figures and conservative cultural values, I think too many liberals/leftists would be okay with the vast majority of it. And maybe that’s my major point.
Cool, I was wondering how a topic as seemingly cut and dry as a Nazi news anchor mocking a disability could be derailed into handwringing about “leftists” instead.
This is where I respectfully disagree. Jon Stewart (and I loved Jon Stewart) often used this fig leaf. We’re a comedy show, we can’t be held to any journalistic or cultural standards. We’re on Comedy Central for heaven’s sake!
But over and over cultural and journalism studies show that a large amount of the population does get their news from entertainment programs - The Daily Show was possibly the major starter of that on the center-left. Maybe Stewart and others didn’t ask for it, but the result is that they were/are the primary news sources for many people and straight-up major influencers in the cultural-information sphere. You can’t reap the rewards while abdicating all responsibility - that’s what folks on the left - what I personally - criticize capitalism for.
The blurring of news and entertainment has gone on several sides of the political graph, and I don’t think it’s either accurate or fair for liberals/leftists to to hide behind which television network happened to pay their salary.
(it’s one reason why I think John Oliver is a great evolution - they do hold themselves to rather deep journalistic standards on that show.)
I am one of those leftists. I tried sparking a deeper conversation than “yes Laura Ingraham is really awful,” which doesn’t really get anyone very far. It’s very true, it’s been very true, and will continue to be true that Laura Ingraham is awful. Is there anything we can do to fight that kind of poison without poisoning the culture ourselves?
I have written about this kind of thing…that every time the fascists take a step, people look at the left and start crying about whether we have been opposing them precisely the right way…so much that I am exhausted by it. I can find links to what I’ve said before if you like, but suffice to say I do not believe it is actually a deeper conversation at all, just a way to shift responsibility.
I am at the point of just telling people that I don’t care what the liberals and moderates think, I am a anarcho-socialist and we are not the same. We might have some agreement on what the problems are, but we have very different views on what the solution is.
I could say more, but it will just end up with arguments and people saying “not all liberals”. That is not how I want my day to go.
I just resent the unrelenting assumption that plenty of us wouldn’t be just perfectly happy if assholes like Bill Maher were less popular too and have been perfectly pleased to criticize such people and have done so repeatedly often being called “the destruction of the left” for doing so.
Does that get acknowledged in these limp “both sides” arguments though? Nah… nah… Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
Meanwhile the fascists do not care and we’re all supposed to shrink in our little meek boots because “tu quoque! TU QUOQUE!!!” every time like clockwork.
Not to mention that assholes like Bill Maher are considered “the left” because everything short of “actual fucking Nazi” seems to be considered “the left.”
Also, he’s a person who was literally born a crime. Literally. His parents marriage was illegal and he was not supposed to exist as a mixed race kid. Vs. Ingram who was born into wealth and privilege and is nothing but a pretty face masking a ball of utter hate for anyone who isn’t like her.
That doesn’t even get at how Fox news props up the GQP, which despite being a minority party in pure numbers of supporters, pretty much has this country in a fucking stranglehold as they’ve gone full fascist. Fox news is part of why we are where we are today… While the Daily Show takes pot-shots at everyone across the political spectrum…
So yeah. Fuck that noise.
Comparing a teenage girl to a DOG… ahahahahahaha… high comedy there, let me tell you. /s
It WAS and REMAINS a comedy show. Talking about current events doesn’t make it less so.
