Thinking Skins Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 http://thoughtsparadigm.blogspot.com/2009/05/intellectual-debate-vs-satire.html The following is a letter I wrote to Rachel Maddow (rachel@msnbc.com) at MSNBC. ------ Dr. Maddow, I remember when I fell in love with your show on Air America Radio (back when we had 1260 AM) here in DC during the election season. I just loved your intelligent responses so some of the more controversial issues of the day. In this new age of Obama, I was particularly excited to hear such intelligence on the rewarded on the radio, and later the television. I also thought that the fact that you could blend this intelligence with a sense of humor was remarkable. I remember in one of your initial shows, you had a guest complain about your use of satire. I thought you handled that situation perfectly. It is possible to talk about the controversial news stories without being a gloom and doom type personality - predicting that every move will make the world end. I question though, where you wish to position yourself on the line of intellectual debate and satire. It seems that lately you've been leaning more on satire and less on intelligent breakdowns. Many times I've been anticipating (longing for?) remarks similar to ones you've given to Joe Scarbrough and Pat Buchanan, but instead I've gotten satirical jokes (teabagging?). Its not that I don't enjoy the jokes, but I can get the jokes anywhere, there are so few people as intelligent as you. I realize though that maybe I'm holding you to a higher standard than I should. But there are so few 'intelligent' personalities in the media and so it disappoints me to go to a party of graduate students and one of the main talking points is the criticism of your show. I try to defend you, but its hard because in some ways I agree with what they're saying. This is in no ways a "I'm going to stop watching your show unless..." type of email. I enjoy even the parts of your show that I disagree with much more than many other news shows on television. But I do thrive for one aspect of your show more than others. Thanks for reading. ------ I wrote it in a spur of the moment type thing on Sunday morning. Any opinions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 I would not have been as polite, but that would not have been a better way to write someone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thinking Skins Posted May 10, 2009 Author Share Posted May 10, 2009 I would not have been as polite why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 why not? I have watched her show, I classify her as a hack. She is more interested in taking jabs at others than the truth. This is unacceptable. Satire is subtle, it is mostly about accepting the target's arguments and showing what they would lead to; it's not calling people names (teabaggers)... that's not satire, that's just lazy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thinking Skins Posted May 10, 2009 Author Share Posted May 10, 2009 I have watched her show, I classify her as a hack.She is more interested in taking jabs at others than the truth. This is unacceptable. Satire is subtle, it is mostly about accepting the target's arguments and showing what they would lead to; it's not calling people names (teabaggers)... that's not satire, that's just lazy Interesting POV. I don't know about taking jabs at others in most circumstances. I think she's generally very respectful of the opposition's point of view, just quick to point out how silly it is. I'll admit that I was NOT a fan of MSNBC's (and thus her show as well) fascination with the whole teabagging thing. It would've been nice to just get some real opinions on it instead of making joke after joke after joke about it. But normally I enjoy (enjoyed) watching her talk about specific issues for the very purpose that she didn't just dismiss them (as Olbermann seems to do). Lately though, I've seen less of this, and I fear that her show is becoming similar to many of the posts here on Extremeskins, biased and one-sided and just laughing at the other side, and trying to play on emotions more than intellect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thinking Skins Posted May 10, 2009 Author Share Posted May 10, 2009 I mean, its one thing not to like her show (from the beginning). What I'm saying is that I liked the show in the beginning (a whole lot), and I'm liking it a lot less as she tries to make it more like a Liberal rallying point than a show where issues are discussed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 I think it's a well written letter. It would be interesting to see (if it reaches her) how she responds to it or if it causes introspection. I suspect some of the jokes are due to fatigue. It gets tiring to be reasonable all the time when so many are endlessly hurlng feces. Some of it is just nature. And some of it is an evil vindictive streak (hey, we all have them) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 Well I haven't watched her show regularly, so maybe she was better before... But I've seen a few lately and that's how I've formed my opinion She's not as bad as Olbmermann, or the Fox News hacks but still, that's not saying much is it? Still as sad as it sounds I don't think there is anyway around it. It seems like every douchebag on TV is trying to out do everyone else... so we wind up with a bunch of people jerking to their ideology like it's all a game or something. Part of that is the commercial nature of it, the other part is that TV is just not conducive to intelligent discussion. TV could be a lot better, but print media will always have more nuanced discussion. Unfortunately people prefer TV... this reality is going to have very negative effects on our society's harmony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoSkins561 Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 She is a fool that is still hung up on GWB, seriously, get over it. Everything Obama does, is spun to blame GWB, it's a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thinking Skins Posted May 10, 2009 Author Share Posted May 10, 2009 I think Chris Matthews is the best right now (not saying he's great or anything). He's obviously got his own opinions and they definitely get in the way sometimes, but his show isn't nearly as biased as the others and at least both sides get opportunities on his show. I also like Wolf Blitzer, but he seems more like a news reporter. He doesn't seem to address the issues himself, he lets his guests do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thinking Skins Posted May 10, 2009 Author Share Posted May 10, 2009 I think it's a well written letter. It would be interesting to see (if it reaches her) how she responds to it or if it causes introspection. I'm not expecting a response, but we'll see. I suspect some of the jokes are due to fatigue. It gets tiring to be reasonable all the time when so many are endlessly hurlng feces. Some of it is just nature. And some of it is an evil vindictive streak (hey, we all have them) Thats possible. And I was thinking that towards the end of the letter. Its kinda like a 'crabs in a barrell' argument. I KNOW she's smart and so I want to see her use that intelligence, but its not her only characteristic so maybe I'm limiting her too much by judging her by it. I was comparing her TV show to her radio show and other shows (mainly Chris Matthews) and it seems that both these other shows focused more on intellect than humor. Given, maybe since Matthews is a 'big name' at NBC, he can have a larger staff to help develop some of these intellectual arguments. But on her radio show, she'd have callers call in and give her Right Wing points of view and she'd respond with a nice balance of intellect and humor. Thinking back though, I do wonder how much she was helped by other callers who would also give intelligent arguments against the right wing. My fear though, is that she's changing her show because she feels that there's no market for intelligence. I pray thats not the answer. I don't think of myself as a 'liberal' or 'conservative'. I think I'm smart and I like to analyze issues in depth. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't think so. In particular, I think most of the people who watch CNN/MSNBC (and who would like to watch FoxNews) are of this genre. But I fear that these networks are trying to compete with MTV and ComedyCentral for the younger audience with humor and are ignoring their main viewers who are people like myself. So I find myself turning to CSPAN's Washington Journal more and more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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