The comedy cops at the Media Research Center get angry when late-night talk shows don’t take the Fox News approach to attacking Democrats, and it took the same approach during the Democratic National Convention. We’ve already caught chief comedy cop Alex Christy complaining that people committed the unforgivable offense of finding a joke by Barack Obama funny. He returned to whine in an Aug. 22 post:
After Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday, CBS’s Stephen Colbert reacted on a live edition of The Late Show by claiming that day three of the DNC was “another powerful evening” that “was about remembering that America is good and that we shouldn’t give in to hopelessness.”
Before Walz spoke, he was introduced by his old football team, which was almost too much for Colbert, who brought out his football referee whistle, “Then, one of Tim Walz’s old neighbors brought out something special: the football team that Coach Walz took from being 27-game losers to state champions. [blows whistle] Flag on the play, too adorable! Roughing the heart, 15 yards. [blows whistle].”
Christy grumbled the next day:
CBS’s Stephen Colbert wrapped up his week of live shows from Chicago on the final night of the Democratic National Convention by hyping Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech as “everything we’ve been waiting for.” To cap it all off, he welcomed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for some additional party promotional material.
During his monologue, Colbert noted, “All this week, the DNC has been a big TV hit. On Tuesday, the DNC crushed night two of the RNC by 39 percent.”
Colbert had an idea as to why, “One reason could be the speakers. Night two featured Michelle and Barack Obama, while the RNC’s second night closed with Lara Trump and Marco Rubio. That’s like saying, ‘Sorry, we don’t have coke. Is diarrhea okay?’”
As for the actual nominee, Colbert teed up a clip of Harris by recalling, “Harris had this warning about Trump.” In the clip, Harris warned, “Understand he is not done.”
Christy went on to play whataboutism to swipe at Democrats:
Later in the interview, Colbert came down with a heavy case of selection bias, “The Democratic Party has got a few in important firsts. First black president, first female vice president, first female presidential nominee, first speaker of the House, first person of color to lead the House Dems. Why do you think those firsts are established by the Democrats when either party has an opportunity to do that?”
Ocasio-Cortez claimed it was because “it really comes down to what we fight for in living our values, which is gender equality, racial diversity, civil rights, housing equality. And also, and it’s not just the civil and gender and orientation and identity rights that we protect.”
Of course Colbert didn’t mention the first female Supreme Court justice, black Secretary of State, first black female Secretary of State, or first post-Reconstruction black senator from the Deep South, but that would upset the narrative.
As if Christy doesn’t engage in selection bias by refusing to evaluate the biased late-night stylings of Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld. He showed more bias in an Aug. 23 so-called “study”:
For the late night comedy shows, the week of the Democratic National Convention provides the hosts with an opportunity to prove that they can make fun of Democrats in the same way they attack Republicans. However, a new MRC study shows they failed to do so this past week. In terms of quantity, the comedians hold 113 fewer jokes than they did during the RNC and 60 fewer jokes about Kamala Harris than Donald Trump.
For the purposes of this study, analysts examined 20 episodes of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest hosted by RuPaul throughout all four nights of the DNC.
Analysts looked at jokes told about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and everything else related to the convention. We also analyzed what type of jokes were told and who the hosts brought on as guests to help them make sense of the proceedings. Finally, we compared the findings to July’s RNC.
Again, Christy absolutely refused to evaluate Gutfeld, lest it make his numbers less extreme.
As he does on occasion, Christian Toto played junior comedy cop in an Aug. 24 post:
Earlier this year we saw both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert host DNC fundraisers for then-candidate President Joe Biden. Not only did they help fill Democratic coffers but they kept the nation’s biggest secret to themselves.
President Biden’s cognitive state is poor, which is why he was forced to hand the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kimmel even lied to his fans over the matter, pretending Biden’s shocking freeze-up as just another “cheap fake” moment.
The bigger issue is clear. Colbert, Kimmel and Thompson push Democratic talking points from their respective platforms. They hammer GOP targets relentlessly and all but ignore vulnerable Democrats.
That means you won’t hear a pointed barb aimed at VP Kamala Harris from now until Election Day. And likely much longer if Harris becomes the country’s first female president.
Like Christy, Toto censored all mention of Gutfeld and how he pushes Republican talking points — or why his obvious bias deserves a pass.