Late-night comedians have become rock stars in the Trump era.
[John Oliver] "He's tweeting the chancellor of Germany like a drunk guy masturbating in a subway car!"
Between Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Colbert, Myers, SNL,
Comedians are playing a big part in how we talk about politics.
[Seth Myers] "Trump does have a tendency to lie his ass off.
That's why Chris Christie is always there to catch it."
But if you look past the jokes and side gags, these comedians are doing a really good job of covering Trump.
Sometimes better than serious news networks.
[Samantha Bee] "Nice misdirection Chris Angel, but you can't just shake your keys and distract us.
We're not cable news, we're Americans."
And that's because political satire has something that TV news lacks: a really low tolerance for bullshit.
Part of what makes Trump such an easy target for satire, is that a lot of what he says is ridiculous.
[Donald Trump] "I know more about ISIS than the generals do."
That makes him a gold mine for political comedians.
[Seth Myers] "How low has President Obama gone to tap-puhpuh my phones."
But it poses a real challenge for traditional journalists who aren't used to covering someone like Trump.
[Sophia McClennen] "The news media sort of seems like it has to take it seriously in order to be taken seriously."
This is Sophia McClennen,
She's written a couple of books about how political satire makes us smarter new consumers.
And she argues that part of why satire is better at covering Trump,
Is that traditional journalists don't always know when to call bullshit.
Look at what happened after trump tweeted that Obama had wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower.
Comedians all covered it basically the same way.
They said it was baseless.
[Stephen Colbert] "Trump has not produced a shred of evidence."
[Oliver] "There was no evidence, to Trump's claims."
Pointed out that it came from a fringe conspiracy theorist.
[Bee] "A do-laly radio host."
[Myers] "Right-Wing radio host and unlicensed Gynecologist Mark Levin."
And then made clear how bonkers this whole thing was
[Colbert] "The craziest thing about trump calling for an investigation without any evidence...
Is that it actually worked!
Congress is going to investigate Trump's wiretapping claim."
Now compare that to the way that major news networks covered that same story
They correctly reported that Trump's claim was false
[Anderson Cooper] "No facts to back up this startling allegation."
But then went on to spend segment after segment after segment hosting debates about it.
[arguing]
They interviewed intelligence experts and government officials.
[Interviewer] "What did you think when you first heard about it?"
They argued with paid Trump supporters about basic reality.
[Interviewer] "Andre, read the story that's not it said."
[Woman] "This would be included in the definition of wired," [offscreen] "That's not what he said."
[crosstalk]
They spent hours fixating on whether there might be evidence at some point down the road, maybe,
That shows Trump wasn't just making it up.
[Woman] "Look, I think he is going off of information that he's saying that has led him to believe,
That this is a very real potential, and if it is, if this happened--"
[offscreen] If! If! If! If!
[laughing]
I- I..
The problem with this kind of coverage isn't that it's inaccurate,
It's that it takes bullshit way too seriously.
[Woman] "There could be something that comes out in two weeks, and if there is we're having a different conversation."
It'd be like hosting a serious debate about whether the Earth is flat.
Or whether Celine Dion can sing.
Or whether I wear underwear on recording days.
[offscreen] dude.
It gets really hot here.
And research shows that this kind of coverage rots our brains.
When we watch these kinds of he-said she-said debates,
We're less likely to think that we can figure out the truth.
We get disillusioned, our brains check out.
And this could happen even when a news outlet tells you one side is wrong.
The mere repetition of rumors and falsehoods makes audiences more likely to see those things as credible.
[Man] "I don't think that he owes them an apology.
I think what we need is an investigation."
And the inability to separate real stories from bullshit,
Means news networks have less time to focus on things that actually affect people lives.
Which is why while 24-hour news networks fill their airtime with screaming matches,
Much shorter comedy shows have found time to do in-depth storytelling, about things like net neutrality, and State Legislative battles.
[Bee] "Remember a year ago, We told you about a rape kit bill that was blocked,
Here's the rest of that story."
But this is bigger than debunking any one conspiracy theory.
Satire is powerful because it trains your brain to be skeptical.
To think critically about what politicians are saying.
[Comedian] "He's using your words when you use the words and he uses them back.
It's circular using of the word and that's for real."
[McClennen] "Political satire is about showing you that the system is faking you out.
It's kind of opening your eyes to basically lying.
[Myers] "Yeah, that's a guy who's definitely lying."
[McClennen] "It fires up the mind to say hmm... this doesn't seem right."
Look at the coverage of Trump's address to Congress in February.
TV news commentators applauded his Presidential tone.
"Not only was he more presidential, he was a politician."
"Truly extraordinary moment."
"That was one of the most extraordinary moments."
It was the comedians who saw through the theater of Trump's performance.
[Colbert] "Trump may have changed his tone,
But that doesn't change the content of what he said."
[Bee] "Managed to talk about his dystopian agenda using an indoor voice.
HORRAY!"
In cases like this satire isn't debunking specific falsehoods.
It's encouraging you to look behind the curtain. To recognize bullshit artistry,
and laugh at it even when journalists don't get the joke.
[Bee] "If Pundits set the bar for President Trump any lower,
Even Jeff Sessions will be able to walk under it without bumping his head."
Thankfully some journalists are starting to get the joke.
Like CNN host, and permanent fixture on my vision board, Jake Tapper.
Tapper has started using sarcasm and humor to deal with his visible frustration with covering Trump
"Obama tapped my phone" island.
Population:
President Trump.
Listen to his reaction when a trump supporter accuses him of nitpicking trump's comments.
[Woman] "Just beating down on certain little one-word sentences."
[Tapper] "How dare we cover the comments he makes."
Ooh!
God damn, Jake
What Tapper's doing here isn't bias or partisanship,
he's using common sense
people think of satire is very partisan, but, the point is that, satirists are after,
good rational thinking what you see that the satirist have that would be lovely to see in the
Basic news Media is this sort of defensive reason
What makes satire such a powerful antidote to Trumpism,
Isn't that it's funny.
It is not possible that millions of people voted illegally and nobody noticed.
It's that for satire to work, it has to be able to point out what is ridiculous and absurd
To cut through talking points and endless panel discussions and describe the world as it really is
but comedians Shouldn't be the only ones doing that.
We think that the journalist's job is to show all sides of the story
but the journalist's job is to show the truth
and sometimes, in this case, going after truth is going to be funny
because the lies are so absurd that you can't help but laugh.
Volunteer Transcribed.
