Friday, Sep 5, 2008
Is true satire only from the left? Also, readers reject Wenner's world.
Apr 26, 1999 | Truth and consequences
BY JOYCE MILLMAN
(04/19/99)
So Joyce Millman's list of proper satirists includes not only Michael Moore but also Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and the Smothers Brothers. Perhaps to her, true satire seems to exist only when coming from the left. Her argument would hold much more weight if she gave any indication that she sees satire as having room for the slightly libertarian, moderate Republicanism of Dennis Miller and Bill Maher alongside the radical fanaticism of Michael Moore.
-- Aaron Schatz
Cambridge, Mass.
Joyce Millman's article on "The Awful Truth" actually misses the one thing that sets Michael Moore apart from everyone else -- he goes to the source. While everyone else indulges in plain commentary or commentary on commentary, Moore distinguishes himself by walking right up to Bob Barr, or at least right up to Trent Lott's house. It's easier to blather on about Fred Phelps than it is to walk right up to him with a camera and have a little chat.
Watching Bob Barr duck and weave is far more entertaining than all the comic punditry in the world. Moore just gives his targets rope -- they invariably put it around their own necks.
-- David Link
Sacramento, Calif.
I read with irritation Joyce Millman's celebration of Michael Moore's narrowness of mind. I liked and admired "Roger & Me," but thought "TV Nation" was awful. While I enjoyed Moore's irreverence up to a certain point, his show reeked of the kind of moral certitidue that, like Pat Robertson, is more scary than funny.
Millman confuses Moore's grating one-sidedness with conviction. Not once have I seen Moore acknowledge the other side of an argument, even for the purpose of refuting it. He views every issue from the same, tired, pseudo-populist point of view, leaving viewers with the sense that it's Moore himself who is really trying to con them. What kills Moore's ratings isn't conviction, it's intellectual laziness and predictability.
That Millman wants Bill Maher to pick a political party and stick with it is telling. Maher's "failure" to do so doesn't signify the lack of a point of view, but rather a lack of loyalty to anything but his own values. If only more political show hosts were as committed to the concept of thinking things through, based on one's own principles, rather than picking an ideology as an adolescent and holding on, blindly, for dear life.
-- Jay S. Levin
Millman hit the nail on the head. Back in high school, when yearbook time came around, we had a section called "class superlatives," with categories like "best looking," "most studious" and "most likely to succeed." There was also a category that fits Kilborn, Miller, Maher and company to a T: "talks most, says least."
-- Tim Kane
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