Hollywood's Great Right Hope
Joel Surnow is the executive producer and creative force behind the Fox's undeniably entertaining flagship show 24. He's long been a Hollywood player, getting his big break in 1984 as the head writer for that decade's flagship show Miami Vice. Surnow is also a "right-wing nut job."
He called himself exactly that without a bit of irony in a February 26, 2007 New Yorker interview. Well maybe a bit of irony. After all, his latest creation is The 1/2 Hour News Hour, a right-leaning fake news show Fox News launched in February to counter the perceived liberal bias of The Daily Show. Should we be worried? Does Surnow's creative horsepower mean a regime change in left-leaning Hollywood? It's not as improbable as you might think.
Fake News Is About Jokes, Not Politics
It's easy to cast off Surnow and his Fox News ilk as desperate fools after a quick view of 1/2 Hour News Hour clips. The anchors haven't gotten into character (a basic prerequisite of fake news), and the laugh track in place of a studio audience is laughable.
But Fox News just bought 13 more episodes of the fake news show, so they may yet have time to find their feet. Doing so won't be about studio audiences nor great anchor performances. Success hinges on the answer to one question: Is The 1/2 Hour News Hour loyal to political strategy or loyal to the joke?
Let's hope it's the former because that guarantees failure in satire. Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin and Stephen Colbert are widely credited for the current formula of The Daily Show (and The Colbert Report). They are just as widely quoted saying that their only loyalty is to the joke. They live and die every show as comedians, not pundits.
Loyalty to laughs over liberalism is why The Daily Show became so successful since Jon Stewart took over in 1999, and that's why they're as strong as ever -- even after Democrats recently took over two-thirds of Washington.
Limbaugh/Coulter Are Satirists, Not Pundits
The Washington political game is mostly a game of media. Sure politics are focused on law, diplomacy, economy, military, etc., but it’s all driven and sold by media. Few people in Hollywood know this better and have more resources than Surnow.
He's done with fiction exactly what Stewart/Colbert/Karlin did with fake news in that 24 flawlessly straddles political content and pure entertainment. The show takes you deep inside Washington’s war on terror without ever taking a forthright partisan position. Every week (or hour as it were) on 24, Cheney-like sociopaths in plush offices battle with honorable soldiers in the field to make impossible decisions in the thick of worst-case terrorist scenarios.
Heavy political issues like torture, suspension of civil rights and racial profiling are all integral to the show. Yet even the most liberal people I know love 24 for it's entertainment value, and it has even become a (somewhat) safe topic for me to bat around with right-wing nut jobs at work.
This is why it's highly probable that Surnow could make his right-leaning fake news show a success. In one way, success of The 1/2 Hour News Hour would be positive because it would expose Surnow's fellow nut jobs like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as satirists rather than actual political pundits. At least that way, it would be easier to attack their credibility.
Some might also argue that a right-wing competitor to the Comedy Central power hour would pull Stewart and Colbert deeper into politics and punditry -- which could be positive. But it's never going to happen. Remember: they deliver jokes, not talking points.
However it shakes out, we need to keep a close watch on Surnow. If media controls politics and Surnow increasingly controls Fox media, then I am worried. He is Hollywood's great right hope.
He called himself exactly that without a bit of irony in a February 26, 2007 New Yorker interview. Well maybe a bit of irony. After all, his latest creation is The 1/2 Hour News Hour, a right-leaning fake news show Fox News launched in February to counter the perceived liberal bias of The Daily Show. Should we be worried? Does Surnow's creative horsepower mean a regime change in left-leaning Hollywood? It's not as improbable as you might think.
Fake News Is About Jokes, Not Politics
It's easy to cast off Surnow and his Fox News ilk as desperate fools after a quick view of 1/2 Hour News Hour clips. The anchors haven't gotten into character (a basic prerequisite of fake news), and the laugh track in place of a studio audience is laughable.
But Fox News just bought 13 more episodes of the fake news show, so they may yet have time to find their feet. Doing so won't be about studio audiences nor great anchor performances. Success hinges on the answer to one question: Is The 1/2 Hour News Hour loyal to political strategy or loyal to the joke?
Let's hope it's the former because that guarantees failure in satire. Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin and Stephen Colbert are widely credited for the current formula of The Daily Show (and The Colbert Report). They are just as widely quoted saying that their only loyalty is to the joke. They live and die every show as comedians, not pundits.
Loyalty to laughs over liberalism is why The Daily Show became so successful since Jon Stewart took over in 1999, and that's why they're as strong as ever -- even after Democrats recently took over two-thirds of Washington.
Limbaugh/Coulter Are Satirists, Not Pundits
The Washington political game is mostly a game of media. Sure politics are focused on law, diplomacy, economy, military, etc., but it’s all driven and sold by media. Few people in Hollywood know this better and have more resources than Surnow.
He's done with fiction exactly what Stewart/Colbert/Karlin did with fake news in that 24 flawlessly straddles political content and pure entertainment. The show takes you deep inside Washington’s war on terror without ever taking a forthright partisan position. Every week (or hour as it were) on 24, Cheney-like sociopaths in plush offices battle with honorable soldiers in the field to make impossible decisions in the thick of worst-case terrorist scenarios.
Heavy political issues like torture, suspension of civil rights and racial profiling are all integral to the show. Yet even the most liberal people I know love 24 for it's entertainment value, and it has even become a (somewhat) safe topic for me to bat around with right-wing nut jobs at work.
This is why it's highly probable that Surnow could make his right-leaning fake news show a success. In one way, success of The 1/2 Hour News Hour would be positive because it would expose Surnow's fellow nut jobs like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as satirists rather than actual political pundits. At least that way, it would be easier to attack their credibility.
Some might also argue that a right-wing competitor to the Comedy Central power hour would pull Stewart and Colbert deeper into politics and punditry -- which could be positive. But it's never going to happen. Remember: they deliver jokes, not talking points.
However it shakes out, we need to keep a close watch on Surnow. If media controls politics and Surnow increasingly controls Fox media, then I am worried. He is Hollywood's great right hope.
posted by JD at 5:15 PM
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