Once again, comics tell truths because "legit media" won't

With all the repression, mendacity and flat-out lies coming from our government these days, it's telling that we need comics more than ever to tell the truths that our "objective" media won't.

While I find Bill Maher to be very hit-and-miss, he was on it Friday night. Maher mentioned how it's odd that Roseanne Barr and her character on "Roseanne" became a Trump supporter, when it's obvious that Trump and other GOPs have done nothing but give away money and power to the rich, which is something Roseanne railed against for years.

"The elites (Trump) rails against on Twitter got billions forever, while Roseanne Conner got peanuts with an expiration date. He cut the corporate tax from 35 to 21 percent. I don't remember "the forgotten American" clamoring for that. This is what his fans have so much trouble seeing- the constant bait and switch."

"[Trump] talked tough to the pharmaceutical companies. He said 'We're going to get drug prices so far lower than they are now, you're head will spin.' Is your head spinning, Roseanne? Because in the first scene of your new show, you and Dan are trading your meds, because you can't afford the ones you need. Because Trump sold out to Big Pharma and sabotage Obamacare, the program designed exactly for people like the Conner family." _Bill Maher

Our media won't be this blunt, and call out the double-talk and flat-out lies that permeate from the average Republican these days, because they think they will be called "liberal and biased" by the right-wing media complex. But what if the truth is liberally-biased (or what is portrayed as "liberal" in "both-sides" media)?

This is where the comics have to step in, which is what is so infuriating about the faux-trage from comic Michelle Wolf's routine at last night's White House Correspondents dinner. As someone who has been watching the "Handmaid's Tale" with my wife recently, this comment really hit home.

"Sarah Huckabee Sanders is here. I have to admit I'm a little starstruck. Sarah, I love you as Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid's Tale." ~ Michelle Wolf#WhiteHouseCorrespondentsDinner pic.twitter.com/TQbFHAeDyk

— 🌊Ryan Adams (@filmystic) April 29, 2018

The subtext of that show in how freedoms are eroded to reach the end goal of authoritarian fascists, and how many people are willing to enable them. (SPOILER ALERT) In the most recent episode, the main character has to hide in the former newspaper offices where the people that Aunt Lydia works for murdered scores of journalists. Given some of the "lock em up!" and "fake news! along with the hate-stirring that is part and parcel of Trumpism, it makes it hard for me to watch that show sometimes, because it illustrates the depths that we could sink to with right-wing depravity.

Here's the other part of the fauxtrage that drives me nuts. Some of the invited guests to this DC Circle Jerk claimed "elitists" like Wolf deeply offended them. Which is especially rich because the circles THEY run with are p[laces 99.5% of us can only dream of.

The poor beleaguered Koch Brothers Lobbyist and White House senior official who frequently pose for photo shoots as a DC power couple being picked on by elites https://t.co/KRkoYBlGZl

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) April 29, 2018

Wolf had another big target in her speech last night. She ripped on corporate media's role in enabling this awful president, the corruption that permeates all parts of his administration, and the corrosive politics that we are dealing with today. Because that media treated Trump as a reality show star that wasn't to be discussed seriously, and therefore ignored the heniousness that he stands for.

Even when Trump became a serious contender for the GOP nomination and their eventual nominee, they kept treating him as a celebrity and as a sideshow (and still kind of do as president) instead of castigating him as a clueless, anti-democratic fool who has no business ever being charge of a country with the ability to (ab)use political power.

And the reason why? Ratings and access.

"What no 1 in this room wants to admit is Trump helped all of you. He couldn’t sell steaks, vodka, water, college, ties or Eric - he has helped u sell your papers, books & TV. You created this monster & now you're profiting off of him"

Michelle Wolf being factual #WHCD pic.twitter.com/WLzNRI3Rkk

— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) April 29, 2018

When this fact was pointed out to the media's faces, Coastal Establishment insiders like the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and NBC's Andrea Greenspan...COUGH....Mitchell complained about Wolf's "tone" and fauxtraged about what they claimed were shots against Huckabee Sanders' appearance (which they weren't, by the way).

Which makes this response by Wisconsin-raised Jeremy Scahill so on the money.

But jokes from presidents about drone murdering civilians and wars based on WMD lies are perfectly fine. You are parodies of yourselves. https://t.co/PqyO7yLubD

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) April 29, 2018

It illustrates the fatal flaw in much of the Beltway's "journalism". They only care about what affects them and the other politicans and insiders they cover. They don't have a problem if people make jokes that punch down at the everyday person, but if someone turns the spotlight on them and the fraudulent game they're in on , then it's "deeply offensive." Cry me a river, millionaires.

And why is the media caring about the fee-fees of right-wingers anyway? the Washington Post's Greg Sargent points out, Republicans will lie and whine regardless of what the press does, and the press then shrugs and gives their dishonest bile as "one side of the story." Which plays right into the GOP's hands while hurting the media's reputation with everybody.

This is how the media ends up rewarding bad-faith right wing attacks on the press.

There *is no point at which* right wing critics will *ever* concede that the press is behaving objectively.

It's a sucker's game. Choose not to play it. https://t.co/lWdEmIjpN5

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 29, 2018

The media's constant enabling and allowing of bad-faith right-wingers to poison the well of discourse leads a lot of people to be turned off from 2018's politics and treat it as a reality show to watch and be entertained by. And that's dangerous in a time when both media members and average Americans need to be active citizens that give a damn about the destruction of our democratic system of governance, along with the lack of accountability and checks and balances that is currently happening in GOP-run DC.

So as long as our "legitimate" media continue to value ACCESS over REPORTING, we're going to have to rely on partisans and comics to give us the truth and connect the dots on things these days.