Comedy Journalism
Over the weekend, journalists across the nation gathered in Washington to attend the yearly White House Correspondence Dinner. Once again, this dinner proves that comedy is the best journalism.
For a long time now, people have been getting fed up with our journalists who have far too often exchanged hard hitting questions to politicians for political access. As a result, our politicians can get away with pretty much anything because no one is going to question them about it or hold them accountable… except late night comedians apparently.
Usually it is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert who ask the tough questions and that is why neither will likely host the Correspondence dinner every again. This weekend, it was Jimmy Kimmel’s turn to host and he made some great points practically right to the President’s face.
He talked about some of the important social issues like gay marriage, marijuana legalization, guns, and appeasement. Obama is notorious for his position of “evolving” of gay marriage and so Kimmel’s jokes about how all marriage is pretty gay hopefully hit pretty hard. I just wish some of the “journalists” in the audience did their job and followed up with the President on his position.
Sure it is easy to joke about legalizing pot, but the fact is that doing so would seriously fix our prison problem in this country, save lives, and probably help to balance the budget.
But the greatest joke of the night in my opinion is only really funny because it shows the primary problem with the Obama presidency. It is a problem that I have often wondered if Obama was even aware of. So the fact that he had to fake chuckle at the joke is at least an acknowledgement of his awareness. That is at the very least a good first step. Now, we just have to make sure he realizes that we really consider this to be a huge problem that threatens his re-election. In any case, here’s the joke:
“President Obama wanted to move the dinner to the Kennedy Center this year, but the Republicans wanted to keep it here at the Hilton so they compromised and so here we are at the Hilton.” – Jimmy Kimmel
Why can’t our journalists ask Obama about his history of Republican appeasement?
Related articles
- David Gregory Uses Jimmy Kimmel Joke To Ask Robert Gibbs Why Obama Deserves A Second Term (mediaite.com)
- Jimmy Kimmel Goes After Obama, Republicans And The Press At W.H. Corrrespondents Dinner (mediaite.com)
- President Obama And Jimmy Kimmel At The 2012 White House Correspondents Dinner (inquisitr.com)
Filed under: journalism, Obama, Politics