The satire tag
: Big, old media needs to get a sense of humor. Straight out satires have been taken as real by the big guys twice recently:
: When a fake Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on Howard Stern’s show and proposed blowing up the moon — with the fringe benefit of ending women’s PMS and bitchiness — Joe Scarborough on MSNBC took it seriously and lectured Arnold about sexism. Now, the guy’s a good Schwarzenegger impersonator but still, there were scores of clues in the bit that it was a bit.
: The Swift Report — a good and often very funny satire site — put out a press release from the Coalition for Traditional Values upset over Laura Bush’s off-color jokes and TV-watching habits. Now, of course, what makes that so funny is that it’s so close to the truth. But it was just a joke. Nonetheless, Rush Limbaugh, MSNBC, and Drudge fell for it.
[via Lost Remote]
Alex Beam says: “Poor dears. Don’t they know the Golden Rule of the digital age? On the Internet, no one can hear you lying.”
Lying? How about joking, Alex? Nobody was trying to lie. They were trying to tell a joke. But big, old media just didn’t get it.
Maybe we need to add courses in remedial humor to journalism schools.
Or maybe big, old media just needs to lighten up. Big, old media apparently has been too depressed lately from falling audience and advertising. Big, old media needs to get a big drink. Or big, old media needs to get laid. Something.
