Media Curmudgeon

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October 29, 2007

A Colbert/Warner Ticket

Stephen Colbert announced his candidacy for president and has been getting more favorable coverage than Barack Obama or Elizabeth Edwards (see Katharine Seeley’s story in the NY Times). The comedian is also being taken seriously by America’s youth, who have made him the number-one political candidate “friend” on Facebook—beating out Obama (see the NY Times story)—and semi-seriously by Tim Russert on “Meet the Press.” Now that Colbert has answered the question of whether or not he will run, the next obvious question is “who will be his running mate?” An immodest proposal—the Media Curmudgeon.

What do these two candidates have in common, you might ask, and why would they be a good ticket?

First, as Megan Garber implied in her very intelligent piece in the Columbia Journalism Review, Colbert is the kingpin of media critics—one that is wickedly ironic and funny. By satirizing conservative TV bloviators, Colbert makes fun of them with the accuracy of a laser pointer and enthralls a young audience that recognizes the silliness, stupidity, and hypocrisy of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and, therefore, of FOX News. And I’m not the only one to relate stupidity to conservatism; John Stuart Mill wrote “stupid people are generally conservative.” However, the corollary is not necessarily true, that all conservatives are stupid, as proven by many of my smart, conservative friends. (One might logically ask, “If they’re your friends, how can they be that smart?”) Nevertheless, Stephen Colbert would obviously agree with Mill and probably add, “Stupid media people are generally conservative.”

The Media Curmudgeon is also a media critic, although nowhere near as smart or funny as Colbert, so there is an ideological affinity between us. Also, I would add some solemnity and gravitas to the ticket and certainly have some appeal to the 65+ plus crowd that largely doesn’t get Colbert. I could be called Coat-tail Warner.

Having two media critics on a presidential ticket would emphasize that running for the top office in America today isn’t about politics, ideas, or solutions, it’s about the media—how the media is covering the presidential primary races (like a horse race), how the media decides to cover the candidates (like rock stars, pop singers, and heiress tarts and their clothes and hair cuts), and which television news channel can win the race to the celebrity gutter.

Also, a Colbert/Warner (pronounced war-nier to maintain the Frenchiness) ticket would be wonderfully ironic—a pair of liberal, sarcastic white males that look and dress like Republicans. Our campaign slogan would be, “Mock on, baby.”

Posted by Charles Warner at October 29, 2007 06:33 PM

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