Around twenty years ago or so, late night comedy was well… comedy. It was funny and while the hosts and writers mostly skewed to one side of the political spectrum (though sometimes you might be surprised), they understood that their job was to be the voice of the audience, skeptical of politicians on all sides, and looking above all else for a good laugh.
That’s why it’s the last era where late night comedy was watchable.
Then a former guest star on the Nanny got hold of the Daily Show and turned it into his political pulpit. Comedy became clapter. Liberals in the media embraced Jon Stewart as the future of news. And he was. Not only did the news page become indistinguishable from op-eds, but they all became indistinguishable from the political cartoons page and the DNC. Stewart’s favorite gimmick, one adapted by a legion of hacks from Jimmy Kimmel to Dave Smith, was ‘clown nose on’ and ‘clown nose off’.
What that meant was that they preached to the audience and then pretended to just be telling jokes when they were called on it. The end result was that late night comedy became a political campaign ad. Now the FCC is cracking down on the comedian’s clown nose loophole.
Broadcast network talk shows can’t shirk their responsibility to provide equal opportunities to political candidates by claiming they’re acting as “news” shows, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Media Bureau warned Wednesday.
Citing Section 315 of the Communications Act, the Bureau’s Public Notice reminds broadcasters that, if they provide airtime to one candidate, they are required by law to provide equal and comparable access to airtime to all opposing legally-qualified candidates:
“Adherence to these requirements are (sic) central to a broadcast licensee’s obligation to operate in the public interest.”
Talk shows long ago became news shows and comedy shows combined. None of them provide entertainment, they impose political programming.
Joke’s over.
