Television Reviews and Right Wing Ideology

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The reviewers have agreed with me in not being impressed with Jay Leno’s new show. The ratings have been good, as would be expected by from people tuning in initially to decide if this is worth watching and because he was up against reruns, but it remains uncertain as to how NBC will do with this gamble long turn. While this is primarily a question of the ability of the show to continue to bring in viewers, John Nolte at big Big Hollywood turns this into a matter of political ideology.

Big Hollywood is the right wing blog which was established to fight what they see as excessive liberal influence on popular culture. They don’t realize that the only way conservatives can win the culture wars is to stop trying to fight living in the 21st century. Having so many conservatives support creationism, foreign policy follies such as Iraq, and a return to shirt hanger abortions is just not going to win over the creative class.

Nolte notes the luke warm reviews, including from a conservative as well as liberal news organizations, and argues that “If Jay Leno Wants Better Reviews He Can Start By Removing the Lapel Flag.”

While it is also right there in the picture on my post, I hadn’t even noticed that he was wearing a lapel flag. This was totally irrelevant to my impression of the show–and I bet to the  impressions of pretty much all television reviewers. Leno was judged by most based purely on the entertainment quality of the show, not political ideology.

On the other hand it is pretty clear that Nolte is basing his support of Leno purely on ideology and not on the quality of the show as his post concludes:

I didn’t see his show, but I’m pulling for him because all the right people are not.

What do you say in response to such absurd thought? Once again the “ditto head” mentality of the right trumps everything else and it isn’t even necessary to watch the show to judge it.  John Cole calls this “unspoofable” and adds:

If John Nolte is so concerned with Leno’s ratings, maybe he should quit wanking about lapel pins and start watching.

Are there any history majors out there who can tell me if there ever was a time that one of the major political parties was so concerned with something as trivial as lapel pins? This has been an ongoing obsession of the wingnut crowd for several years now, and it is just downright bizarre.

6 Comments

  1. 1
    Eclectic Radical says:

    I’m curious? Has Leno decided to adopt a strident right wing tone on his show? Or is Nolte defending him solely because of the lapel pin and his dislike of the Hollywood establishment?
     
    I can respect supporting someone solely out of opposition to an establishment. I don’t see the point of injecting politics into the support unless the issue is already political.
     
    This is why I can’t stand Brent Bozell either.
     

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    No, Leno isn’t right wing at all. The right wingers just like him because they hate Letterman. Back when they were attacking Letterman for his Bristol Palin joke, the ignored the fact that Leno has both told more jokes about Palin’s family than Letterman has and Leno’s jokes went further and might be seen if more objectionable if they were judging based upon the jokes and not their hatred of Letterman.

  3. 3
    Eclectic Radical says:

    Ahhhh. Okay. It’s just absolutely ridiculous idiocy as usual. I guess the flag lapel pin argument threw me off. 😉
     
    I hadn’t thought he was right wing at all, but then I hadn’t thought Dennis Miller was right wing at all when I watched him on HBO. So I figured it was best to check. 😉
     

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    Dennis Miller has been a clear right winger (and ceased being funny) since 9/11.

  5. 5
    Eclectic Radical says:

    Well, yes, but I really did not see it coming and it started out as fairly understandable ‘let’s get the terrorists’ stuff that a lot of us who weren’t clear right wingers were feeling too. It really didn’t become unabashedly political (as opposed to a straightforward expression of rage at the attack) until the countdown to the Iraq mess started. Which is when I stopped watching because I couldn’t stand him anymore.
     

  6. 6
    Jim Z. says:

    I’ve paid close attention to both Leno and Letterman throughout the Bush-II years and since. Seems to me that both performers practice equal opportunity with their zingers.

    Leno did have a great interview with President Obama, but why not? Letterman finally (I thought way too late) began showing actual clips of Bush-II stupidities (his incredibly inane, mindless speeches) and crudities (the spitting, etc.), but it’s not as if they were made up. Bush put his behavior out there for all to see. Every other president before and since has the right to be embaressed that Bush-II occupied the seat. It took a bunch of comedians to show the real Bush to us? Where was the horrified mainstream media? AWOL.

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