22 Minutes is, for the time being at least, being denied media accreditation to get access to the foyer of the House of Commons. This is because the Parliamentary Press Gallery, which is responsible for handing out accreditation, has tightened up its policies following an incident last June. Evidently, a crew from the Radio-Canada show Au-Dela du Real obtained accreditation by devious and duplicitous means, provoking a security scare, which in turn led the Gallery to declare that “non-news-gathering teams” could no longer be accredited.
If ordinary citizens can’t get in the door wearing the “political statement” of a Libranos t-shirt, then really, why the special treatment for these little groups of corporate welfare bums?
Satire is good for politics, just as surely as the reverse is true. A healthy dose of satire can help keep a place honest, even a place like Parliament, where breathtaking displays of pomposity and overblown indignation are the norm, and are celebrated on the nightly news.
In this case however, the satirical have long been as pompous and self-important as their intended targets.
Besides, isn’t the shtick getting a little old?
Old and ever more shrill – their placing themselves in the intellectual company of Swift confirms the accuracy of your claim of pompousness and self-importance.
Ralph Nader, of all people, said “When the realistic freedom of dialogue and public discourse is restricted in any society, the quality of satire increases. That�s why the best satire in the world in the latter half of the twentieth century was in the Soviet Union, like Krokodil magazine. Our satire couldn�t come close to the satire in the Soviet bloc countries, because it was the only way they could get anything across.”
I have long contended that Canadians’ sense of political powerlessness fed the market for often-lame CBC “satire,” sort of “if you can’t beat ’em, laugh at ’em” to pretend you don’t really care that these idiots hold such untrammeled power over you.
Let’s hope that times are changing for the better. Canadians do deserve better but will have to “earn” it somehow.
“When the realistic freedom of dialogue and public discourse is restricted in any society, the quality of satire increases.”
Along that line, satire of the Left in the US and abroad seems to be the only source of brilliant political comdey out there these days. The pot shots on GWB are all lame and old. The Rubes at 22 Minutes need to be taken out with the trash.
You want proof?
Bush is to Blame For Everything
We shop Only at Che-Mart
The People’s Cube
Is This Really News or What?
Since When Can You Smoke a Dog?
Only a start.
he he.
Pompous and self-impotent, oops! important is putting it mildly. WHy do we need the CBC anyway?
I always leave the room when it’s on.
Any way that we can get the “corny-as-Wayne-and-Shuster” Air Farce off the air?
You’ve made my day. Mind you, it doesn’t take much these days ….
Doug,
That is great stuff. I am making to much noise here at work laughing so hard.
Oh ya, and Rick Mercer isn’t funny. The Lie-beral’s are having those one ton challenge Kyoto promotional bits run again, what a waste of money.
If this is what passes for Canadian humour, P-U. A bunch of buffoons who fit the Mother Corpse’s commitment to mediocrity. When you compare it to Monty Python – well, never mind.
The litmus test for any true, gutsy satire in Western society these days would be a sharp, no-holds-barred savaging of hardline Islam.
No chance Rick Mercer and the like would ever risk their butts going public with satire like that though.
If a Conservative government gets in: privatize the CBC, Strip the CRTC of most of its powers, open up ownership of TV and Radio licenses, remove monoploy ownership of media in large markets.
enough
It’s time Mercer and his ilk are banned from TV as well as the press gallery. His style of humour (smearing everything and everybody west and south of Ottawa)is not funny and is usually very offensive to whatever group or region of the country (usually the west) he is smearing. I found his bit of going to the States and asking stupid questions designed to get stupid answer especially offensive. To begin with why would he expect the people in the US to know that much about Canada much less care. It did not make them look stupid or ill informed, it made him and CBC look stupid, arrogant and… or yeah stupid. I would be willing to bet if he asked the same questions to people in his beloved Atlantic Canada he would probably get just as many stupid answer as he did stateside. His depiction of western Canadians (Albertans) as toothless hayseed hicks dragging their on the ground is laughable. The majority of his good old Martimes buddy’s probably get up every morning, brush their tooth, have beer and head down to the welfare office to pick up a cheque (not necessarily in that oder)!
Enough & Cowboy55: Good points!
Re: One tonne challenge commercial: next time you watch it, pay particular attention to the last 3 seconds when Mercer is looking back and forth for SOMEONE to “take a pamphlet”, but alas, no takers! Perhaps he needs to shave his head, grab a tamborine, find a pink robe and head down to the airport to get a little respect!
Sorry Ricky, no one’s buyin’ your junk science.
Oh! It’s the one ton challenge. I thought Ricky Mercernary was talking about the “wonton challenge”. I think it is funnier my way.
“The majority of his good old Martimes buddy’s probably get up every morning, brush their tooth, have beer and head down to the welfare office to pick up a cheque (not necessarily in that oder)!”
Actually, a lot of them moved to Alberta to make some $$. Newfies generally make very good employees, since most understand that having a job is not a right – and they are damn grateful when they get one.
I couldn’t help but make one final reference to this self-congratulatory line from the article: “Several years ago, 22 Minutes famously satirized Stockwell Day’s plan to initiate expensive referendums on any subject once a certain number of petitioners had been signed up.”
Imagine that Day’s crazy idea of introducing a little more democracy for Canadians – a voice for those who don’t have their own CBC platform!
The budget for “This Hour…” would be a good start on funding referenda, even if they weren’t quite as “funny.”