The concept of delivering a satirical television news broadcast that mixes civilized, deadpan disgust with the stories dates back to a comedian named Mort Sahl, and we should thank him for it. Sahl worked in jazz and comedy clubs in the early 1960s in San Francisco, seated on a bar stool holding a rolled-up newspaper and expounding on current events. It was a departure from typical stand-up comics of the era with mother-in-law jokes and funny walks. A frightening number of Americans these days get their news from, well, social media, but more pertinently, monologues of late-night talk show hosts.
As every mediocre comedian to come along has done since Sahl, let’s see what’s in the news.
The major story of this moment, the one which will have the most near-term international influence, is the trade talks in London between American and Chinese officials, providing an opportunity for both sides to curtail the flinging of threats and tariffs at each other. The United States is the world’s biggest market; in April China stopped exporting rare earth metals, of which it has a stranglehold supply. Rockets, missiles, airplanes and some cars cannot operate without them, something about using them to build heatproof magnets.
Elsewhere there are rowdy demonstrations in the streets of Los Angeles over methods used by immigration officials, and although they are confined to one neighborhood downtown and law enforcement officials say they are confident they can handle it, the federal government has 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 on-duty U.S. Marines involved. More to the point, broadcast news makes this look like everyone in Southern California is terrorized by this event.
“What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty carried out by riders bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country,” the commander-in-chief said on Tuesday in a speech. “We’re not going to let that happen … We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again.”
If you think Los Angeles, the site of the Summer Olympics in three years, is on fire, several hundred news personnel would disagree with you, but more to the point: the trade talks, to news people, are little more than a door to a building in which guys in suits are batting around deals. Whatever they decide, if anything, will influence economics, recession, your job, your future, defense industries around the world, the rate of inflation and plenty of other things. The other thing, the demonstrations, will either expand or pass, but wow, they look exciting on television.
We are amusing ourselves to death, as writer Neil Postman said in the 1980s. The majority of gay people in this country are not hard-partying drag queens but that’s the image modern media offers. Organized religion, like sports, has less of a hold on the public imagination than television suggests. If you know anyone who says he or she watches little television and you believe it, ask for an opinion about UFOs, conspiracy theories or the value of vaccines. Television encourages viewers to overreact — call this 800 number now — and in a government full of people at the top with television experience — starting literally at the top — overreaction, as well as “good visuals,” is what to expect.
Personally, I have rarely been accused of being a voice of reason but these days I find myself regularly talking friends down from positions of panic, and they are all American citizens with no chance of deportation. Freaking out over a perceived problem is the sort of thing salesmen want you to do; they tend to take things like care of my lawn more seriously than I do. When you ponder how this country is now an autocracy with one person in charge of the executive branch, Congress and the Supreme Court, I am reminded that this is what the electorate voted for. Until it hits them in the wallet, they will continue to endorse it, and watch it unfold on television.