This page was last updated on July 6, 2011.
Kill all the grandmothers; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 6, 2011.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.
“Here’s how ridiculous the anti-tax mania has gotten.”
[RWC] I’d normally think this editorial is a tongue-in-cheek piece, but the BCT editorial body of work means readers need to treat it as a “serious” effort.
“Anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist appeared on the ‘Colbert Report’ last week. Host Stephen Colbert laid out a scenario in which all the grandmothers in America were being held hostage by terrorists and would be eaten alive by fire ants unless the U.S. raised taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.”
[RWC] In case you don’t know, “The Colbert Report” is a political comedy/satire show on “Comedy Central.” As you read this editorial you may ask yourself the same question I did. Did the BCT hire Stephen Kislock to ghostwrite for its editorial board? <g>
This is at least the second BCT attack on Mr. Norquist in less than a week. The first was by BCT entertainer/pundit J.D. Prose.
Did the BCT ever refer to Al Gore as a manmade-global-warming “zealot?”
I still can’t get over how often the BCT treats comedy shows as legitimate news sources. This is at least the 14th time since October 2004 editorials afforded credibility to “The Colbert Report” (a spin-off of “The Daily Show”) and/or “The Daily Show.” At one time the BCT acknowledged these shows were “false news program[s],” “faux news program[s]”, et cetera. Now, though, it appears the BCT believes “The Daily Show [on Comedy Central] … [is] what real cable TV news should be.”
“Would Norquist go along with a tax hike to save these grams, Colbert asked?
“‘I think we console ourself with the fact that we have pictures and memories,’ Norquist responded.”
[RWC] The video from the relevant section of the show is here (at about 5:30 into the video) and the transcript is below.
Colbert: “Terrorists have captured all of our grandmothers. They’ve got them in a subterranean burrow which you know they have and all of our grandmothers have been slathered with honey and they’re going to release fire ants into this burrow who’ll bite our grandmothers to death. Their only demand is that we increase the marginal tax rate on the top 2 percent of Americans and we will release them. Do we increase the tax rate, or do we let our grandmothers die by ant bite?”
Norquist: “I think we console ourself with the fact that we have pictures and memories.” [Mr. Norquist then smiled and laughed.]
Colbert: [Responding to groans from the audience:] “No, that’s the right answer.”
Does the BCT expect a serious answer to an unserious hypothetical question on a comedy/satire show? If the BCT takes this seriously, why didn’t the editorial tell us Mr. Colbert (a lefty) agreed with Mr. Norquist?
I wonder if the BCT thinks the Democrat National Committee ad that shows a man representing U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair over a cliff is a news report.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.