I apologize for the hiatus—the week’s events in Pakistan, where my family has relatives and friends, has my life a bit topsy turvy and my brain all full of political venom. This is not an international affairs blog so if you want my thoughts on the emergency martial law, visit my other blog, The Internationalists.
In the technology and culture world, it’s actually been a lighthearted couple of weeks, and there’s one very amusing incident I’d love your thoughts on. Stephen Colbert, the American comedian, is running for President.
For those of my British readers who don’t know him, Colbert plays an alterego on television [this of the Ally G persona relative to the real Sascha Cohen]. Colbert’s alter ego is a nightly news anchor on a fake news show called The Colbert Report, where he satirizes the sensationalism and self-aggrandizement that passes for journalism these days. He brings on real political guests and media personalities, then makes a farce of them in interviews. He has fake correspondents delivering false news reports that put a satirical twist on real current events.
For a while, everyone thought this was mostly a joke on the politicians and the state of American politics, but Colbert has a serious critique of contemporary media in mind. When the White House Press Corps (the group of reporters from all the major papers and news channels who cover the President) asked him to speak at their annual dinner last year, he took not only the President, but the reporters themselves to task .
This year, he announced that he would himself seek a nomination for the Presidency. So far, he hasn’t found a state willing to put him on the ballot. But what interests me is that at first he was trying to make his case outside mainstream media, to go along with his critique that mainstream media is an arm of the sick beast called contemporary politics. He was asking for support via a Facebook group and web campaigns and of course, his show.
Last week, however, I found that Mr. Colbert had published an Opinions article in the New York Times asking for supporters. What does it say that the man who’s made all his fame telling us how worthless the political system and the media are has to use old mainstream media to get himself on a mainstream political ticket to make any change?
Colbert would probably say the joke is on the Times, because they have had to grant him a place to speak up, allowed him to infiltrate. But I think the joke is ultimately on Colbert: his article begins with the fact that real Times columnist Maureen Dowd asked him to write. This is the stroke of genius that keeps the NYTimes afloat in this era of new, online media. The paper basically tells the Colbert’s of the world that their critique is fine and welcome, so long as it happens within the Times’ pages. Without agreeing with Colbert’s argument (which would amount to disavowing the Times’ own history that Colbert critiques), the paper incorporates his criticism and ensures that the debate about the mainstream press will still have to happen within the mainstream press.
Stephen Colbert—are you playing with the cat, or is the cat playing with you?
