Kurtz stars in new satire on CNN
Howard Kurtz has a new comedy show on CNN called "Reliable Sources." Great title... I love when the irony starts with the opening credits.
I think the writing could be a little punchier, but they really did a good job making fun of the whole state of American media... at least from the clip I saw on Crooks & Liars.
Kurtz plays this "media watchdog" who has a couple bloggers on to talk about a radio station in San Francisco. The hysterical irony is that you think it's going to be this liberal station because it's in Nancy Pelosi's district (they even call the station KSFO... how mindless), but it turns out to be this nutball right-wing station. They really did a great job with that, too, because the people on the station are clearly insane, but the writers also nailed the stupid "comedy" that right-wingers try to pull off as if they're as funny as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.
So, in this episode, Kurtz runs a clip of these "KSFO" hosts making stupid noises as if they're frying the NY Times editor in an electric chair... and then the show gets really good. Kurtz talks about this blogger named "Spocko" (those bloggers really do have funny outer-space names, don't they?) and starts talking to these other bloggers.
Like I said, the writers of this show really understand how important irony is in satire. Right after Kurtz plays the clip of these guys calling for the NY Times editor to be fried to a crisp for publishing a newspaper, Kurtz gets in this guy Mike Stark's face for being against free speech! Hilarious!
And he has this right-winger on there to claim that these "KSFO" hosts were being "misrepresented" after the audio they themselves broadcasted was played. Genuis! The writers of "Reliable Sources" truly understand the Orwellian methods of the right. I mean, they nailed it!
Before you know it, Kurtz is claiming they called Barak Obama a "half-rican" and in an Alice-in-Wonderland moment, Kurtz asks if maybe it's satire. Like a play within a play. Brilliant!
I think the show kind of went downhill from there, to be honest. They start talking about killing millions of Muslims... I understand what they were trying to do, but I think they need to stick with the punchy humor. When they got back to the lefty guy, Stark, holding a sign saying "Hannity sucks ass," then it picked up again.
Not bad for a first episode (at least I think it was the first episode). Hopefully, they'll straighten out the problems and get into a rhythm. If they do, I think we will be watching one of the greatest satirical shows of all time. Kudos to CNN for having the guts to put this kind of comedy on the air!
I think the writing could be a little punchier, but they really did a good job making fun of the whole state of American media... at least from the clip I saw on Crooks & Liars.
Kurtz plays this "media watchdog" who has a couple bloggers on to talk about a radio station in San Francisco. The hysterical irony is that you think it's going to be this liberal station because it's in Nancy Pelosi's district (they even call the station KSFO... how mindless), but it turns out to be this nutball right-wing station. They really did a great job with that, too, because the people on the station are clearly insane, but the writers also nailed the stupid "comedy" that right-wingers try to pull off as if they're as funny as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.
So, in this episode, Kurtz runs a clip of these "KSFO" hosts making stupid noises as if they're frying the NY Times editor in an electric chair... and then the show gets really good. Kurtz talks about this blogger named "Spocko" (those bloggers really do have funny outer-space names, don't they?) and starts talking to these other bloggers.
Like I said, the writers of this show really understand how important irony is in satire. Right after Kurtz plays the clip of these guys calling for the NY Times editor to be fried to a crisp for publishing a newspaper, Kurtz gets in this guy Mike Stark's face for being against free speech! Hilarious!
And he has this right-winger on there to claim that these "KSFO" hosts were being "misrepresented" after the audio they themselves broadcasted was played. Genuis! The writers of "Reliable Sources" truly understand the Orwellian methods of the right. I mean, they nailed it!
Before you know it, Kurtz is claiming they called Barak Obama a "half-rican" and in an Alice-in-Wonderland moment, Kurtz asks if maybe it's satire. Like a play within a play. Brilliant!
I think the show kind of went downhill from there, to be honest. They start talking about killing millions of Muslims... I understand what they were trying to do, but I think they need to stick with the punchy humor. When they got back to the lefty guy, Stark, holding a sign saying "Hannity sucks ass," then it picked up again.
Not bad for a first episode (at least I think it was the first episode). Hopefully, they'll straighten out the problems and get into a rhythm. If they do, I think we will be watching one of the greatest satirical shows of all time. Kudos to CNN for having the guts to put this kind of comedy on the air!
