"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, November 9, 2018

News Satire Roundup: November 4th-November 8th


Sunday, November 4 – We started with some midterms ugliness, including Duncan Hunter’s fearmongering of his opponent, Steve King not saying he’s not a white supremacist, and a representative for Jeff Fortenberry getting way too up in arms about him being called “Fartenberry” on the Internet (he compared it to blackface – why?!)  As is tradition, we also got an And Now This on local news anchors in Halloween costumes.  The main story focused on family separation.  John did a great job showing how, at pretty much every level, this was even worse than it seemed on the surface, from the transparent xenophobia of its conception to the colossal chaos of its execution to the devastation of its fallout and after-effects.  The video of a young, formerly-detained boy sobbing that he wants to go “to jail” because his mother doesn’t love him anymore, as all the while she desperately tried to comfort him, was brutal.


Sunday, November 4 – Really great episode.  Hasan focused on Amazon, and I loved his examination of the “wokeness vs. laziness” conundrum; he covered how Amazon exploits its workers, cuts out small businesses, and absorbs other online retailers but still admitted that he wasn’t about to live without the convenience of it.  It was a strong way to frame the larger story of the more mercenary things Amazon does.  Within that, we also got some interesting information about tech monopolies and why current antitrust laws are so ill-equipped to address Silicon Valley.  A second, shorter story looked at the midterms, specifically the sort of down-ballot races that Hasan described as “the Minor Leagues” of politics.  His story about not knowing who any of these people are but voting with the cheet sheet from “your woke friend Andy” was pretty spot on.


Monday, November 5 – Opening blurbs on the migrant caravan (loved the comment that, instead of sending the military to the border, Trump could’ve used that $200 million to fly the whole caravan to Norway,) Trump using a Game of Thrones meme to announce sanctions on Iran, and the tallest statue in the world, now in India.  A collection of midterms-related topics, including celebrity endorsements (Trevor’s incentive plan of having Oprah hide in one random voting booth somewhere in America was awesome) and polling, with Trevor arguing that issues, not polls, should decide people’s votes.  Two interviews tonight.  The first guest was John Kasich, who discussed possibly running as an Independent in 2020 and urged people to make their voices heard.  The second, Cory Booker, pointed out that America has spent too much time condoning atrocities and needs to stand against them.

Tuesday, November 6 – Live show for the midterms, considerably less funereal than 2016’s.  After celebrating the Democrats’ overall House victory, Trevor looked at some historic firsts (shoutout to Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar!) and Desi reported on the Ted Cruz-Beto O’Rourke race.  I liked Roy’s prediction that Trump was happy about the results, since a Democrat-let House gives him a scapegoat for anything he can’t get done.  Michael interviewed non-voters from an important district in a pretty depressing segment, Ronny went in-depth on voter analysis for one man, and, for lack of time, Dulce and Jaboukie delivered simultaneous election commentary.  Journalist Jamil Smith was the guest, looking at the takeaways of the night and the deciding hand voter suppression may have played (like Andrew Gillum narrowly losing in Florida on the same night the state voted to reenfranchise over a million people shut out of the election.)

Wednesday, November 7 – The starting theme was a familiar one, the “what we thought was gonna be the news today.”  Trevor opened on the midterms, pivoted to Trump’s colossally off-kilter press conference (in which he constantly insulted reporters and flat-out admitted he’d now blame the Democrats for anything he didn’t get done – Roy was right!), and then jumped to Jeff Sessions’s “resignation.”  The riff on the acting AG’s previous spitballing of how he’d defund the Russia investigation out of existence was top-notch.  Next, we looked at one bizarre state race, which was won by a literal “dead pimp” – I loved the accompanying trailer for Ghost Pimp Assemblyman, starring Roy.  Author Rebecca Traister, the guest, discussed her new book on women’s anger and the role it’s often played in social change.  I appreciated the attention she paid to intersectionality and the importance of white women not hijacking the spotlight.

Thursday, November 8 – First were short bits on the White House sharing a doctored video of a CNN reporter “assaulting” an intern, Ruth Bader Ginsburg recovering from a fall, and new research about the ills of spanking.  We returned to acting AG Matt Whitaker; Trevor looked at Whitaker as an addition to Trump’s “shady people” collection, and more interestingly, examined his history of criticizing the Mueller investigation on CNN in the (self-admitted) hope of catching Trump’s eye.  I loved the bit about how seriously he leveled up, winding up as acting attorney general when he’d been aiming for a judgeship in Iowa.  Fun story on the difficulty of finding jurors for El Chapo’s trial – like Trevor, I was amused by the guy who was dismissed for asking for his autograph.  Rapper Swizz Beatz was the guest.  He discussed his long-awaited new album, as well as the importance of learning how to manage his earnings.

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