Fox News is reportedly looking at a right-leaning satire show modeled on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. There’s a lot of questions as to whether this will work. Fox News is thinking of airing funny fake news as a change of pace to their serious fake news. They are in danger that not enough people will see the difference. This has also already been tried with Dennis Miller, who ceased to be funny when he took up right wing politics. Maybe they’ll hire Michael Richards following his recent racist rant. Anyone know if Mel Gibson can do comedy?
Even if such a show is funny, I also wonder whether enough conservatives have a sense of humor to appreciate it. Another problem is that right wing attacks are very frequently based upon creating straw men and then attacking these straw men. If they just make fun of the liberal straw men they create, there is littel point. If they show the guts to actually try to mock the real views of their opponents, conservatives won’t know what they are talking about.
This is also another case of conservatives being unrealistic about bias. Conservatives continue to cry about an imaginary liberal media which does not exist. While true that there are a number of left-leaning comedians, they aren’t above mocking the left as well as the right. A show which solely attacks the left risks being too partisan to be as funny as shows like the Daily Show.
At least Fox is showing signs of reality in one area. They have cancelled plans for the O.J. Simpson book and television special. “I and senior management agree that this was an ill-considered project,” Rupert Murdoch said in a statement released today. “We are sorry for any pain that it has caused the Goldman and Brown families.”
