I hadn't realized rioting was a possibility. Of course, I've been staying away from the news, lately, and don't have a television. But Willa Paskin's column this morning described coverage on the Daily Show as non-political:
Jon Stewart kicked off his show by saying “Welcome back. Wow. Do you ever have one of those days where everything you loved as a child was underwater?” He followed this up with a bit comparing the powerless and power-having parts of Manhattan: Two correspondents sold rats and wielded machetes in lower Manhattan while uptown, John Oliver complained about the run on a particular flavor of frozen yogurt. Having eased in with a segment that was not purely political, Stewart got down to business, with “The Daily Show Tribute to Institutional Competence,” or what happens when politicians stop being partisan and start getting real.
I thought, How is that not political? She even uses the words, 'comparing the powerless an power-having' recognizing a fundamental imbalance. While this disaster has not been anywhere as jarring as Katrina in its illumination of structural poverty, what emerges from disasters like this is precisely that some people have better access than others to solutions... which quickly becomes political when the needs of those without are not met.
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Jon Stewart kicked off his show by saying “Welcome back. Wow. Do you ever have one of those days where everything you loved as a child was underwater?” He followed this up with a bit comparing the powerless and power-having parts of Manhattan: Two correspondents sold rats and wielded machetes in lower Manhattan while uptown, John Oliver complained about the run on a particular flavor of frozen yogurt. Having eased in with a segment that was not purely political, Stewart got down to business, with “The Daily Show Tribute to Institutional Competence,” or what happens when politicians stop being partisan and start getting real.
I thought, How is that not political? She even uses the words, 'comparing the powerless an power-having' recognizing a fundamental imbalance. While this disaster has not been anywhere as jarring as Katrina in its illumination of structural poverty, what emerges from disasters like this is precisely that some people have better access than others to solutions... which quickly becomes political when the needs of those without are not met.