News Satire Roundup: March 13th-March 17th

Sunday, March 13 – Some election missteps to start the week:  Clinton mistakenly crediting the Reagans with starting a “national conversation” on HIV and Trump falsely claiming he’s never advocated violence after his supporters fought with protesters at a Trump rally.  We got a happy International Women’s Day from Fox News, congratulating American men on being better than the Taliban.  Fun little piece on Switzerland’s Day of the Sick and their ultra-dour president giving a speech on laughter as the best medicine.  I thought the main story on encryption was very well done.  The major focus was of course on Apple and FBI, and John covered the issue’s complexities while simultaneously showing its severe fallout potential.  I’m also glad he touched on the notion of the hypothetical “master key” then being demanded by countries like China or Russia, also Apple-customer governments, to monitor their citizens through their phones.

Monday, March 14 – I loved the piece on the recent violence at Trump rallies.  The show has done a nice job lately in pulling off the balancing act of covering Trump, finding the humor and insanity while also acknowledging how far this has gone and how serious it is.  Trevor covered numerous aspects of the issue thoughtfully and brought Trump’s hypocrisy into sharp focus.  The piece with Neal Brennan, on Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s antics, felt comparably lacking.  Some of the Kanye stuff was funny (especially wondering why he’s not the Republican frontrunner by now,) but even if Kim’s naked selfies are a dubious reason to discuss female nudity, I’m not sure it was a conversation that should have been happening without a female voice present.  Didn’t quite work for me.  The guest was CNN’s Van Jones, who had a lot to say about the danger Trump presents to the U.S., as well as the media’s part in how it all came about.

Tuesday, March 15 – I got a kick out of “This Should Be Easy,” the show's new game show for Clinton.  I think the Reagans/HIV gaffe is still the worst, but asking where Sanders was with health care in 1993 (working alongside her) and telling coal-mining swing voters about how her clean-energy initiatives will get rid of their jobs were pretty bad, too.  The follow-up story on clashes between protesters and Trump supporters was great – it was really chilling to see how deep the anger and resentment runs for some people, and I liked Trevor’s remark about Trump offering to pay the legal fees of anyone who attacked a protester, expressing surprise that he wouldn’t make Mexico pay for it.  I enjoyed guest Joe Nocera, talking about the virtual indentured servitude of NCAA athletes.  It’s a subject I didn’t know much about until John Oliver covered it on his show a while back, and now I’m definitely on the athletes’ side.

Wednesday, March 16 – Plenty on Super Tuesday 2 – no love for Sanders’s concession speech, so long to Rubio, Kasich’s win in Ohio, and Trump’s continued wins signaling the end of days (666 delegates, really?)  I liked that Trevor talked more about a contested Republican convention in the event that Trump doesn’t get the required number of delegates.  He’s right; even though party officials rightly don’t want Trump as the nominee, it won’t be as simple as just picking someone else.  With the support behind him, things could get ugly.  More on Trump rallies, this time a story from Adam on anti-Semitism from Trump supporters.  A bit of a so-so piece for me (I haven’t quite connected with Adam yet,) but I was really shocked to learn the Jewish people by far the most likely targets of religiously-motivated hate crimes reported to the FBI.  Brian Fallon was the musical guest – meh.  I tuned out a little after the first minute or so.

Thursday, March 17 – Amusing little blurb about St. Patrick's Day; I liked the joke that it’s a white person’s holiday, because it’d get shut down as a riot if a single Black man was found drinking and shouting in the streets.  Excellent story on Merrick Garland and the Senate obstructively blocking his Supreme Court nomination “just cuz Obama.”  The bald-faced refusal to even make a pretense of doing their jobs is staggering.  I was less interested in the segment on “Third Month Mania,” the show’s all-purpose version of March Madness.  While Roy and Hasan’s banter was funny, it felt like a wasted segment that would’ve been better spent on news.  Theo James (promoting Allegiant) was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed him and Trevor comparing notes on practicing American accents, especially Trevor’s story about playing “cowboys” as a child with non-English-speaking friends.