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When Judy and I were a young married couple, we had a black and white television that had been a gift from Judy's father. My most vivid memory from that TV was the final episode of M*A*S*H.
In the post-M*A*S*H era, we became very fond of the weekly courtroom comedy Night Court. In fact, on one memorable day, the black and white TV died. It was Night Court's day of the week. What to do?! Somehow in an hour or two we managed to choose and buy a new TV, drive home, hustle it into the house, and plug it in before the show began.
Our regular television diet in those years also included Star Trek: The Next Generation, Northern Exposure, and Inspector Gadget. Some part of our daily schedule was shaped around that sort of television entertainment, always tied to their fixed broadcast times. At some point, we signed up for cable TV as well. However, eventually the Internet disrupted all that. When broadband Internet became available, we explained to our kids that our family budget could allow Internet (at first, DSL on our home telephone line) or cable television, but not both. Which did they want? The Internet won.
So: it's been years since I was a regular TV viewer. The few TV shows that we still watch, separately or together, we access on streaming platforms at times we choose, and most of them have only a handful of episodes per season. Basically, regular television evenings are a thing of the past.
These last few days I've been following the controversies over the ending of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! I don't remember ever seeing full episodes of these shows or any of the other late-evening comedy/talk shows on television; I'm basically a random consumer of the clips that show up on YouTube and elsewhere, particularly Seth Meyers' "A Closer Look." When the networks and their owners claim that their traditional broadcast business model is no longer sustainable (one of the explanations for cutting Stephen Colbert), I can't contradict them. We're mostly not in their shrinking audience base.
The abrupt cutoff of Jimmy Kimmel's show, linked with his deliberately misinterpreted comments on the murder of Charlie Kirk, is being treated by many commentators as an alarm bell, even as a Reichstag fire moment. That was my first reaction as well: we've crossed a line into full-blown authoritarianism. But I have two comments that might be clarifications or diversions—you decide.
First: I agree with those connecting the dots between corporate mergers, the president's dislike of criticism, and astoundingly biased Federal Communications Commission leadership. However, I would not look to the television networks' owners (and the television stations' owners) as guarantors of the First Amendment. Certainly they should prioritize loyalty to their long-time talent above placating MAGA, but the brutal truth is that they've always been in it for the money and they will be even more so in this uncertain era. The first-amendment violation is not on those companies' side; they're entitled to broadcast, or not, whomever they want, and the once-applicable FCC fairness doctrine died nearly 40 years ago. The violation is the organized, malicious leverage wielded by the president and his gang against the "agents of Lucifer," namely those of us who now find ourselves under their occupation.
The cancellations (recent and future) of television comedians aren't the Reichstag fire, but they're arguably part of the smoke. The emergency has already happened: the wholesale appointment of unqualified executive-branch and "independent"-agency top managers who are bought and paid for by MAGA; the slashing of safety-net programs and the abandonment of balanced budgeting (including the idea of rational revenue increases) in favor of tax benefits for the wealthiest; encroachments on the constitutional roles of courts and Congress; willful and dangerous denial of climate change; the reversal of years of hard-won progress in racial justice; and a police-state approach to urban crime and immigration enforcement—all happening at a pace that threatens to overwhelm all our civic and constitutional guardrails.
Second (at the risk of introducing a tangent): The political content delivered by the late-evening comedians on Trump's hate list doesn't exactly conform to the first principles I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, and that I committed myself to after Trump's victories (first, second). Often those comedians rudely ridicule and mock and taunt their MAGA targets, making full use of tightly edited video clips and graphics. No pratfall captured by a camera goes to waste. Nobody is fooled; these performers are quite up front in what they're doing. It can be a very seductive comfort to see our political opponents, some of whom are themselves past masters at political insult and able to hide behind the impunity of high office, get a taste of their own medicine.
Don't get me wrong; their biting humor, whatever my doubts about fairness and good taste, is protected speech under any interpretation of the First Amendment, and this brand of political rhetoric has ancient traditions. But what does a steady diet of these commentaries do to our (my) ability to regard these opponents as made in the image and likeness of God?
That blog post of mine from two weeks ago drew these comments from Ken Rubesh on Facebook, who gave me permission to repost them here:
We must ourselves not fall into the same mind as the ones we despise. We must ourselves avoid the three sins of politics.
- Impugn the motives of your adversary: To dispute policy or disagree on substantive issues is what politics should be about. To react to a disagreement by always calling your opponent a liar is to assume motive that you, most often, have no right to do. It is to disregard good faith on any discussion and arrogantly assumes your own purity at the expense of others. If we are to get anywhere in our political discourse, we must first assume that all arguments are from good faith and not intentionally intended to deceive, however misguided they may be.
- Speak in vitriolic/glistening generalities: Powerful generalities incite the emotions with no substance. They are the lazy way to engage politically. They are intentionally hard to contradict because they have no grounding with which reason against. They make huge assumptions that are not evidenced by facts.
- God is on my side: To claim the moral and religious high ground in a secular society is not only unfair but presumptuous. ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’ not only supports taxes for the common good but presumes the right to a secular, unbiased government while respecting all religious views. To take on Politics as a moral and religious cause is to invite Cultism and allegiance to a person rather than principle.
Just one additional comment from me: to resist is not to despise. Resistance that has integrity always grants the humanity of the opponent. Even with heightened vigilance for danger, resistance seeks openings for communication, hoping to address together these overriding questions: What are the specific blessings you and we would like to see for our country and our world as a whole? Whom do we not wish to bless, and why?
David Van Reybrouck in the Guardian: "We must not let the shooting of Charlie Kirk become Trump's Reichstag fire."
Lili Loofbourow in the Washington Post: "Kimmel’s suspension confirms what many suspected after Colbert’s cancellation: Media companies must punish Trump critics if they want their mega-mergers approved."
William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove provide some moral context for responding to Charlie Kirk's death and its aftermath.
Meanwhile, in our own city, "A more complicated protest outside Portland’s ICE facility." Thanks to Norma Silliman for the link.
Sunday, September 21: British Quakers join UK churches in an urgent call to pray for peace in the Middle East.
Greg Morgan pays tribute to Fred White, his high school chemistry teacher and lifelong friend. Who is your Mr. White?
Is old age God's way of preparing us for heaven? Nancy Thomas offers metaphors, poetry, and hope.
Aki Kumar, "Scratch My Back." (Kid Andersen is playing Slim Harpo's guitar.)
