Is there room for a comedy news show with a conservative slant? Absolutely — if it’s as well-done and amusing as, say, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And not if it’s as big a botch as The Fox Half-Hour News Hour — at least if this sample (via BD) s any example.
Now, never mind that Ann Coulter would likely top my list of Folks I’d Most Like To See Staked Before They Can Rise Again. Rush Limbaugh, the other main conservative commentator on the show can be, on occasion, witty and intelligent.
But to compare this to The Daily Show is is a huge mistake, because, frankly, even if TDS tends to focus on conservative follies most of the time, it has a modicum of even-handedness — Jon Stewart is more interested in goring sacred oxen than in making a partisan point, and he’s done some blistering bits on liberal politicians and causes (and one can expect these to grow in number as the Dems (cough) take more power back grom the GOP). His guests range all over the political spectrum, and he shows
all of them at least a measure of respect (something neither Limbaugh nor Coulter seem able to do).
Ultimately, TDS is about laughing at pomposity and stupidity, while the Half-Hour News Hour seems to be about laughing at liberals. Not that there isn’t overlap between those two sets, but the former is a much richer vein to mine and has the potential for much more interesting humor. Limbaugh and Coulter spend so much of their time ridiculing those they don’t agree with, one can hardly see the difference between their “reality” shows / columns / media packages and what they do here.
It’s just not funny. It’s not clever. It’s not witty. It’s not intersting. It’s just mean-spirited fun-poking and ridicule.
I predict a quick sinking beneath the waves without a trace, save for a bitter flotsam of bitter complaints about how the liberal media hounded the show out of existence.
(via Solonor)