John Oliver

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Don't even try this bullshit.
This bullshit is EXACTLY what is pernicious about their method.
'They play clips' - yeah, 2 seconds clips completely out of context that they then spend the next 5 minutes explaining to you what the person meant, probably meant, and why they said it.

I rarely find that to be the case. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was renouned for rarely misrepresenting people's views, and have apologized when it was discerned that they did. Colbert's old show was the same, although I never recall Colbert apologizing because I don't recall Colbert misquoting, and I watched just about every episode. (I'm not defending his new show, which is more hacky compared to the Report, which was brilliant.)

Oliver and Bee are uniformly excellent at playing clips of people saying exactly what they mean.

How about we put this to the test, BL?

You name your show -- Bee or Oliver -- and we'll watch their next episode. We'll return here and evaluate exactly how accurate Bee and Oliver were in presenting the opposition's argument through clips.

Keep in mind -- we are not evaluating their arguments, though we can do that, too, if you want. We are evaluating how accurate their clips are of the arguments the opposition in question is presenting.

Let's put our money where our mouth is. Deal?

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Let's put our money where our mouth is. Deal?

No thanks. Particularly after the week of bullshit spin after the FL shooting, I'm not in the mood to scrutinize every word of a basic cable talk show, then argue over the degree of distortion or what is argument and what is assertion of fact with their every word.

I already said that a big part of the pernicious nature of the program format is the sheer volume of info that's presented as accurate, but comedy, truth, but satire, serious, but in a funny light-hearted way.

I'm perfectly satisfied with presenting what I have and making my argument that people need to be more alert to when they're being led around by the nose in the guise of entertainment.

To go beyond that is to invite round after round of sophistry and semantics, ending with an 'agree to disagree' and 'it's just entertainment' just as we have right now.

That is, unless you ACTUALLY want to put you money where your mouth is. Put me on the clock and I'll give you my most professional effort, at my customary hourly rate.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

No thanks. Particularly after the week of bullshit spin after the FL shooting, I'm not in the mood to scrutinize every word of a basic cable talk show, then argue over the degree of distortion or what is argument and what is assertion of fact with their every word.

I already said that a big part of the pernicious nature of the program format is the sheer volume of info that's presented as accurate, but comedy, truth, but satire, serious, but in a funny light-hearted way.

I'm perfectly satisfied with presenting what I have and making my argument that people need to be more alert to when they're being led around by the nose in the guise of entertainment.

To go beyond that is to invite round after round of sophistry and semantics, ending with an 'agree to disagree' and 'it's just entertainment' just as we have right now.

That is, unless you ACTUALLY want to put you money where your mouth is. Put me on the clock and I'll give you my most professional effort, at my customary hourly rate.

I was only talking about the accuracy of the clips they present, since that's the part you take umbrage with.