Furor over Stewart-Colbert rally

Stupid move on the opponent for not visiting the weeklies.

 

I'm pretty much a coservative and don't really "get" Colbert---I do understand what he's saying, but like HowieMandel, nothing Colbert says makes me laugh, and there are liberal folks who can make nme laugh my tail off.

Different story with Stewart. I think he is a sharp, reasonable guy and he does make me laugh.

 

I lived in the town that was the bitter, to-the-death rival of my paper's town. As sports editor, that didn't make people very happy. I did say, if someone was willing to offer me a better deal on rent, and make up the extra gas my wife would pay to go to work, I would consider a move.

 

But that idiotic "liberal media" meme is so ingrained in some people they apply it to every newspaper.

Last POTUS election cycle, we had a full page of letters to the editor that ran the Sunday before the election. Three of them referred to our paper as liberal and one accused us of trying to get Obama elected at all costs. On the opposite page was the paper's endorsement of John McCain. In 75 percent of the races, our paper endorsed the Republican. Yet to this day people still call us a liberal paper.

 

I don't like the precedent we're setting here re: entertainment. If I mention around the office I'm going to a concert on the weekend, does the boss Google the performer in search of any political statement he or she has ever made?
My entertainment choices off the clock are my business, not my boss's.

 

Why?

If you don't like it, organize the shop and collectively bargain the right to do whatever you want off the clock.

If you don't want to do that, then you have little to complain about. Short of racial or gender discrimination, it's at-will employment.

And, again, employers have shown that they are fully capable of drawing a line between a political rally and a run-of-the-mill concert by a lefty leaning artist.

And if they aren't, and you don't like it, then quit.

 

I understand the slippery slope statement, and I don't think folks should be forced to follow this ultimatum unless they are working on political/government beats.

As for the notion about Springsteen concerns, etc., I think one of the key determinants is whether the public is likely to assume a bias. For most concerts, I doubt that would be the case.

 

Heck, I was told that our corporate overlords (Ogden) produced a McCain endorsement and required all of the papers in our chain to run it verbatim.

 

Gee, Dick, if the Big Brother corporate model works for you...
I'm not talking about political activism. I'm talking about the simple acts of going to a concert, buying a CD, watching a TV show.
Besides, I'm sure Springsteen has plenty of Republican fans, too. And I'd be willing to bet most Republicans could watch Real Time and find some good laughs when Bill Maher attacks Democrats who lack balls.

 

It doesn't necessarily work for me, but until reporters are willing to put their money where their mouth is and organize, then it's tough to take all the complaining seriously. And again, I have little issue with edicts not to participate in politics, particularly at the Washington Post, of all places. I think it's the right decision.

And if you're a sports writer who thinks you should be exempt, then you don't really take your job seriously. Do you really think politics don't touch sports? Do you think funding and tax issues don't touch sports? Do you think Congressional hearings on steroids don't touch sports? Do you think educational issues, hashed out by partisan political office-holders, don't touch sports?

Also, no one is stopping you from going to a Wilco show (not that they couldn't if they wanted to). You can apply the "slippery slope" argument to anything. It's not a real argument.

 

Juan Williams can go now.

 

So listening to an outright political stump speech isn't entertaining?

What defines it as "entertainment?" Because Stewart and Colbert are actors? The two of them try so hard to put all of their work under the umbrella of "don't take this seriously" when, quite clearly, they take themselves and their show deadly serious, and know their viewers do the same.