Brendan O’Regan
I’m really sick of the head wrecking aggravation from the USA following the murder of Charlie Kirk, and the related, but trivial by comparison, cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel. I have to say neither was much on my radar up to last week. In this polarised environment both are either being canonised or demonised and neither approach serves us well.
I watched clips of what the host said on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) and though silly it didn’t warrant him being taken off air. Ironically, he was pushing a left-wing conspiracy theory that the suspect in the Kirk shooting was from the MAGA stable – “the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them”. He followed with a clip of President Trump expressing sorrow for Kirk’s death and immediately drawing attention to the construction of the new White House ballroom! Kimmel said the President was moving into the fourth stage of grief – construction! I suppose we can be glad of a society where comedians can poke fun at the powers that be, like the court jesters of old. But of course, Kimmel wasn’t arrested, fined or jailed. Conservatives do have a point when they complain that most media comedians lean heavily towards the liberal side of things.
So, the takeaway message seems to be that the very extremes of left and right are inclined to violence, while the lesser extremes of left and right complain of being cancelled or silenced. Both sides spout conspiracy theories, and both sides espouse freedom of speech … for their own side. Good grief, it makes one yearn for moderation. It seems the political spectrum isn’t a line with left and right at either end, but rather a curve becoming bent to a circle where the extremes meet, if not greet.
Looking for moderation and rare examples of unity I found Senator Bernie Sanders take on the assassination on APT News. After he said he disagreed with Kirk on “almost every issue” (and I disagree with Sanders on some issues), he described him as “a very smart and effective communicator and organiser, and someone unafraid to get out into the world and engage the public”. After condolences to Kirk’s family, he expressed abhorrence of political violence and had these words of wisdom: “A free and democratic society, …. depends upon the basic premise that people can speak out, organise and take part in public life without fear”.
The issue formed part of the discussion on Question Time (BBC One, Thursday). Piers Morgan, straight talking but no stranger to controversy himself, wanted, like Sanders, to cool the rhetoric. He criticised author Bonnie Greer for comparing President Trump to Adolf Hitler, but she didn’t apologise, and part of her defence seemed to be that J.D. Vance had previously done the same, but as Morgan pointed out, that was wrong too. By last Monday morning BBC News was reporting on a Kirke memorial, a queasy mix of politics and religion, with his wife Erika forgiving the alleged assassin, but Trump disagreeing with Kirk’s approach to opponents: “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them”. He added: “I’m sorry, Erika.”
Not unrelated is the new comedy series The Paper (Sky/NowTV), a sort of follow-up to the American version of The Office, with the character of Oscar the accountant now working for an ailing local newspaper, subsidiary of a toilet paper company! The show gently satirises the modern media landscape – this paper, the Toledo Truth Teller, had a proud history but now is reduced to the copy and paste approach to journalism with clickbait the main focus of the online edition. Ned (Domhnall Gleeson) is the idealistic new editor – “I love a challenge, that’s why I am so good at Lent”. He wants them to get into real news, though nobody notices that a nearby building is on fire!
The humour is by turns sharp and gentle with likeable characters, more like Parks and Recreation than The Office. Unfortunately, the religious character is presented as a (nice) idiot, which smacks of lazy stereotyping, or is it the stereotyping that is being sent up? There are some #MeToo jokes (“#MeToo? #MeDidn’t”) and one character is worried about offending “the claustrophobic community”. There is very little bad language or crudeness, and it isn’t too politically correct so far.
After three episodes I’m hooked.