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  3. For a politician, appearing on a live television news programme can be gruel

For a politician, appearing on a live television news programme can be gruel

游客2023-12-22  16
问题     For a politician, appearing on a live television news programme can be gruelling, but at least the ground rules are fair. The interviewer will pitch hard questions, but not ridiculous ones, and your replies will be broadcast in their entirety. Not so if you appear on "The Colbert Report", a satirical show on Comedy Central, a cable channel. The host, Stephen Colbert, typically spends two hours pitching questions such as: "If you could embalm anyone in Congress, who would it be?" (This was to Phil Hare, a Democratic congressman from Illinois who once considered becoming a mortician.) Mr. Colbert edits the footage down to the funniest five minutes and broadcasts it. Under these rules no politician, no matter how quick-witted, can win.
    Which is why Rahm Emanuel, the House Democrats’ chief enforcer, recently advised newly-elected Democratic lawmakers to steer clear of the show. Mr. Colbert responded in his usual measured way. "There is a new witch hunt in Washington. First they went after Scooter Libby. Then it was attorney-general Alberto Gonzales. And now the Democratic leadership has unleashed a vicious attack on everything America holds dear: me." He went on: "I know what you’re thinking, nation. Why would Emmanuelle, whose erotic adventures taught a generation the elusive art of sensual love, return from space to counsel freshman congressmen?" And so on. Mr. Colbert ended the segment by offering Mr. Emanuel a replacement for the middle finger he lost in a meat-slicer as a teenager—poking out of a box, raised.
    "The Colbert Report" is probably the most popular satire show among political junkies. Comedians with larger, less well-informed audiences, such as Jay Leno, have to keep their political quips short and focused on figures with flaws everyone knows—like Bill Clinton’s lechery or George Bush’s grammatical problems. Mr. Colbert faces no such constraints. His jokes are aimed at people who would never watch Bill O’Reilly’s conservative rant of a cable news show on Fox, but who recognise Mr. Colbert’s obnoxious on-screen persona as a parody of Mr. O’Reilly because they have read about Mr. O’Reilly in the New Yorker. The 1.2 million viewers Mr. Colbert attracts each night may be small by network standards, but they are young, educated and attractive to advertisers.
    Politicians appear on "The Colbert Report" for the same reason that ordinary people agree to appear on reality shows: it may be undignified, but it gets you on television. For a big shot like Mr. Emanuel, who can attract a camera any time he wants, the indignity obviously outweighs the publicity. But for politicians no one has heard of, it may not. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, and Mr. Colbert says he plans to interview them all, one by one, for a series of segments called "Better Know a District".
    Some end up looking fools. Mr. Colbert floored Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican from Georgia who co-sponsored a bill to have the Ten Commandments displayed in the Capitol, simply by asking him to name the Ten Commandments. Viewers saw him recite three. His spokesman says he managed seven in all.
    By contrast, most of the Democrats who appear on "The Colbert Report" end up looking like good sports. John Yarmuth of Kentucky was joshed into advocating tossing kittens into a wood-chipper: "sometimes the only thing that you can do, [if] you don’t have a shovel." Robert Wexler of Florida confessed to liking cocaine and prostitutes: "It’s a fun thing to do." Such spectacles may make Mr. Emanuel squirm, but viewers know it’s all a joke. Mr. Colbert extracted Mr. Wexler’s "confession" by pointing out that he was running unopposed for reelection and daring him to say something that might otherwise cause him to lose, by completing the sentence "I like cocaine because...".
    Mr. Colbert is equally rude to all his guests. But because he is pretending to be a deranged right-winger, his questions about policy are much easier for liberals to parry. Last week he sparred with Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting Democratic representative for Washington, DC, about whether DC residents should be allowed the same voting rights as other Americans. To Ms. Holmes Norton, who is black, Mr. Colbert said: "Do we not have more important things to do than worry about whether all of our citizens get a vote?" Against such a foil, Ms. Holmes Norton could hardly help sounding reasonable.
    Republicans, on the other hand, tend to be flummoxed when Mr. Colbert enthusiastically agrees with a point somewhat more extreme than the one they were making. Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia, complained about Democratic plans to make congressmen work a full five-day week in Washington. That would mean less time with their families, he told the Washington Post, but "Democrats could care less about families." Mr. Colbert suggested that the five days could include Sunday, thus keeping lawmakers out of church, too, because "Democrats hate God." "I hadn’t thought about that," said Mr. Kingston. "But that would kill two birds with one stone."
    An odd thing about political satire in America is that it is directed nearly as much at the media as at politicians. Headlines in the Onion, a spoof newspaper ("[Clinton] feels nation’s pain, breasts"), would not be so funny if those in the New York Times were not so ponderous. Mr. Colbert’s show would make no sense if cable-news blowhards such as Mr. O’Reilly did not exist. The post-modernity of it all was illustrated when Mr. O’Reilly actually appeared on "The Colbert Report" and jokingly admitted that his aggressive on-screen persona was "all an act". Mr. Colbert replied: "If you’re an act, then what am I?" [br] Which of the following statements is true?
选项 A、Mr. Colbert likes Democrats better then Republicans.
B、Mr. Colbert’s show is directed more at politicians than at media.
C、Serious media don’t like Mr. Colbert but the author thinks they should get funny.
D、The author doesn’t express his personal opinion on live television news programmes.
答案 B
解析
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