All of you right-wingers who thought that The Daily Show was going to become just another tool in a liberal executive branch's belt should take note of the following story.
And if having to read a newspaper other than The Washington Times, The New York Post or The Daily American Patriot Commie Basher makes your eyes bleed, grab your Visine and suck it up. You need to read this.
An attorney for the state said the Obama administration did not want to release detail of an interview with former VP Dick Cheney regarding the Valerie Plame leak because of fears that "it's going to end up on The Daily Show."
So people, mark the time in your head. You now can officially remember the moment when you first heard that Michael Jackson died, the Iranian government threw their own election and the Obama administration admitted they are scared of The Daily Show. Your grandkids are bound to ask you where you where when you first learned about it someday.
Civil division lawyer Jeffrey Smith argued against releasing the documents in the wake of a Freedom of Information Act request by the nonprofit watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (motto: yes, we realize there is an oxymoron in our group's name). They asked for documents regarding Cheney's conversation with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a voluntary statement he offered to Fitzgerald that we can only assume involved at least 32 "wahhhs" and one threat and/or demonstration of how to swallow a person's soul.
Attorney Jeffrey Smith's worry about The Daily Show isn't just that Cheney would look stupid on television. He merely used it as an example of how public ridicule could discourage other power players on K-Street from voluntarily testifying or speaking on matters of such high importance. In other words, it's a lawyer simply being a lawyer.
It's a ridiculous argument. Public officials will always remain under public scrutiny whether its in the op-ed section of a local newspaper or the punchline of a joke on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. If every comedian and comedy writer had to put the feelings of the subject they are punching before the quality of their content, every satirical news show on the dial would be replaced with an episode of Hee Haw. Do you want to live in a world with back-to-back Hee Haw? I don't even want to think of such a place.
Of course, TDS caught wind of the argument and couldn't resist putting the Obama administration on their firing range last Friday. I can't say I blame them. If a federal White House attorney used one of my posts as part of a ridiculous theory in his motion in limine, I would jump all over them. By the way, if you're a member of the U.S. Attorney's Office, my posts are available for your opening and/or closing statements. I could use the publicity and the resume perk.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-28-2009 @ 3:56PM
StillBash said...
It's just another chapter of ridiculousness.
I mean look at the recent episodes of "Real Time". There are a couple of guests who clearly pointed out that Obama is doing in Afghanistan what Bush did in Irak with private contractors in the military "business", acting without any oversight. The supposedly regulating bill of wall street bonuses didn't have any regulation in it, the credit card bill didn't cap the interest rates, and the now proposed climate bill has a targeted goal of 17% reduction of CO2 emissions in 27 years compared to 2005, while the rest of the world is comparing their emissions towards 1990 (!).
Basically nothing is changing. I'm really close to saying that Obama is just "speaking so well" (taken from a Chris Rock comedy routine about Colin Powell).
Reply
6-28-2009 @ 8:19PM
pumpkinhead said...
These great United States of ours is already mostly populated by inhabitants of the Hee Haw corn field. That's how we ended up with Cheney as VP for 8 years to begin with.
Reply
6-29-2009 @ 12:42AM
Deane said...
It seems to me comedians are already putting their subjects' feelings first. When's the last time (or even the first time) you heard a joke about Obama that wasn't about his ears? There's a lot to be humorously criticized in the current administration, but everyone seems afraid to do it. Why do you suppose that is?
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6-29-2009 @ 12:48AM
pumpkinhead said...
I think people may be trying not to put a damper on the hope that the nation has for a turnaround from the unmitigated disaster the prior administration made of it.
I disagree with that position, by the way. The only way a president fulfills promises for change is if the nation monitors what he does and holds him accountable for keeping his promises, and that includes this president.