Lyin' Leno?
I'm aware of the Truth-in-Advertising rules.
But in the 2007 media miasma – where an anchor in a suit and tie looks like a pundit in a suit and tie looks like a comic in a suit and tie – have we gotten to a point where we need to monitor the late-night monologues for content and accuracy? Or at least run one of those lame car commercial fine-print disclaimers at the bottom? ("MSRP … TaxAndTags…ActualJokeMayNotBeTrue.")
I'd never even considered it. Then I read an op-ed by Brad Dickson, a former Leno writer, in the Los Angeles Times who had his own personal Come To Jesus moment about the material he once penned:
When late-night shows are considered influential enough for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fred Thompson to announce their candidacies on them, shouldn't these programs rein in material labeling people accused of crimes as guilty? Shouldn't they at least stop calling most of them guilty after their acquittals? Or perhaps we should do away with the Los Angeles district attorney's office and in court present Leno's monologues, which almost always do a far superior job of convincing people of a defendant's guilt than prosecutors.I know this story. It's the story of a society so consumed with entertainment over information that they completely lose perspective, becoming an apathetic mob. When I read it, it was called "Fahrenheit 451." When I saw it as a movie, it was called "Idiocracy." But we're not there. We may have taken some steps towards it -- [insert your own Paris Hilton joke and/or Frank Rich reference here] -- but we're not there.
I have a lot more faith in the intelligence of the audience than Mr. Dickson. We know that the raise of a Leno eyebrow or the cock of Letterman's head isn't an indicator of innocence or guilt, but his set-up for a punchline.
However the one example Dickson tosses out there that I can get behind is that of the late Richard Jewell, the 'person of interest' in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombings case who was never arrested or charged with any offense. But I find that mostly a referendum on the entire news media's rush to judgement of the man, and that the late-night comics were only serving as an echo of the zeitgeist, rather than leading the charge.
Brad Dickson's heart is in the right place. He's trying to clean up the public discourse, which is admirable. But by starting with the comics – whose monologues are full of hyperbole and satire and not-quite-so's – he's trying to clean up the wrong neighborhood of MediaLand.