The key thing is this: if the journalists at the annual Correspondent’s Dinner had wanted informed editorial opinion, they would have chosen an informed editor to give it. What they chose was a comedienne.
There is a big difference between journalism, editorial opinion, and comedy. Trevor Noah– who is not that sparkling of a comedian– completely lost the distinction. So did Michelle Wolf at the 2018 Correspondent’s Dinner.
Wolf is not a journalist. She is not a graduate journalist: an editor. She is not a qualified reporter. She is a comedian. And she is a trained kinesiologist.
But thanks to Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, and Stephen Colbert, people are beginning to lose that distinction between an editorial opinion and comedy. Trevor Noah has become horribly boring because he acts as if he is a journalist and offers unqualified editorial opinions all night. It’s not funny, and it’s not informative, and it’s not even interesting. Why does he do it? When did he start thinking he was sort of like an editorial writer for a newspaper, instead of a comedian?
The same problem has happened to SNL’s “Weekend Update”. There is no longer a parody of news casts. It’s mainly a couple of blow-hards just mouthing off about Trump. It’s not funny or interesting when they do that. It can be funny when they actually parody the news, but when Michael Che reads a report of some comment or action by Trump and then more or less says, “what a moron”, it’s not funny. It’s not witty. It’s not even amusing.
I think I can safely assume that Wolf was chosen for her qualifications as a comedienne. I’m not even sure if the people who appointed her get the difference: she mainly just got up there and called Donald Trump names. That’s what Donald Trump does to other people and it’s not fun to watch. It’s contemptible.
Undoubtedly, Michelle Wolf felt she had a right to express the following, but it’s pure editorial.
“You guys are obsessed with Trump,” she said, near the end of her routine. “Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you.
“He couldn’t sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric, but he has helped you. He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you’re profiting off of him.”
There is no joke, no wit, no cleverness to it at all. This is the kind of commentary– when done right– that you would expect from a journalist with good first-hand knowledge of Washington politics and the White house.
But it’s just a comedienne who suddenly thinks she’s Martin Baron.
I will say this though– Stephen Colbert was right when he observed that the reporters complaining about Wolf’s speech sound like a man complaining that the valet just stole his car. Think about it– it’s a great metaphor for what happened at the Correspondent’s Dinner, which, in all truthfulness, is a bizarre and unnecessary annual ritual anyway.
[whohit]The Wolf Who Cried Boy[/whohit]