TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2026
Timpf sat in for Gutfeld: We didn't know that Rosie O'Donnell was guest hosting for Jimmy Kimmel last night. You can watch her 15-minute monolog here. We're not even sure we endorse her approach, but she was just plain very good.
We had a different reaction to a different guest hosting spot—to Kat Timpf's appearance on last night's Gutfeld! program.
Timpf didn't seem especially comfortable in this relatively unfamiliar role. That's completely understandable. What we find hard to grasp is the role that was played in last night's program by this silly, sad, stupid "news report" in the New York Post.
In our view, it's amazing to think that a major newspaper clutters its pages with inane reports of that type. It's even more amazing to think that a person like Timpf would then decide to devote some time to the topic—would do so while hosting the nation's third most watched "cable news" program.
To see the joke the guest host fashioned, you can just click here. To their credit, the audience seems puzzled by what it has heard. Timpf then tries to explain what made her joke so hilarious, with no apparent success.
About ten minutes later, Timpf thanks Kennedy, the former VJ who served as one of her guests, for "appreciating" her joke. She then explains the joke all over again, saying that she had been "excited about it all day."
(By the way, yes! That was the disordered former congressman, George Santos, serving as another of Timpf's guests. After President Trump commuted his federal prison sentence, he of course became a semi-regular Gutfeld! guest.)
The Fox News Channel pretends that Gutfeld! is a comedy show. In reality, it's a very aggressive corporate messaging program—a tribal propaganda vehicle which hides behind a comedy veneer.
The program peddles the most divisive kind of tribal propaganda. Our question would be this:
What does it mean when people with such peculiar sensibilities are sent out, night after night, to pretend to be conducting news discussions on a very heavily watched American "cable news" show?
Obviously, there's no such thing as a perfect news discussion. At present, Gutfeld!, like every Fox News program, is pretending to be conducting discussions of some creature called "socialism."
There's no such thing as a perfect news show. But what might a sensible person say about a primetime "cable news" program like this?
ReplyDelete"In reality, it's a very aggressive corporate messaging program—a tribal propaganda vehicle which hides behind a comedy veneer. "
Whoa, you're so insightful, Bob! Very aggressive corporate messaging program AND tribal propaganda vehicle AND it hides behind a comedy veneer. Imagine that!
And what about numerous Dumbocrat aggressive corporate messaging programs tribal propaganda vehicles which hide behind comedy veneer? Do you have any insights into those?
Otherwise, I'm afraid you sound like an aggressive corporate messaging program tribal propaganda vehicle yourself.
So, if Somerby doesn't both-sides these sorts of shows, he is spreading his own propaganda? I think someone can talk about the vehicle separate from the show's content. I also believe there are genuine political comentators who are expressing opinions without necessarily being tribal or corporate messaging. And there are people who do that using comedy, not just with a comedy veneer, whatever that means. For Somerby, it seems to mean telling jokes he doesn't appreciate, especially about bikini waxing. Presumably, Somerby has never had a bikini wax, he is not female, and he most likely doesn't care when he farts. So it isn't surprising he would find nothing to laugh about in Timpf's joke. But the only good jokes for him are the ones that appeal to men.
DeleteI read the transcript linked and didn't see the over-explaining Somerby referred to by Timpf. Her joke was mixed in with a string of jokes and went by among them, at least based on the transcript.
What Somerby is saying, is that Gutfeld is bad for Republican branding.
DeleteWhat Somerby actually says is that Gutfeld! "is a very aggressive corporate messaging program—a tribal propaganda vehicle which hides behind a comedy veneer." Can you quote where he says this is bad for Republican branding? Or is this just more of your made-up shit?
DeleteDogface, being excessively literal means you miss aspects of reality that others experience.
DeleteThe program is a reflection of its audience. There is a substantial number of people who crave a steady stream of a certain kind of tribalistic propaganda, and Fox gives it to them. Less tribalistic people like their news packaged as drama, and the more mainstream news outlets give it to them. In the end, everyone gets what they want, like a nation of children whose parents can't say no. This is what for-profit news leads to.
ReplyDeleteHas not-for-profit news ever existed anywhere, I mean, outside of authoritarian regimes?
DeleteOnce upon a time, the evening news was a loss leader. It was viewed as a public service. Newspapers were so profitable, owning one was practically a license to print money. Under those circumstances, the incentive to dramatize the news rather than simply report it, wasn't nearly as great. Now, they are under severe pressure and losing audience at a ferocious clip. So they cheapen their product, turn everything into drama. There's never any clarity, because clarity is bad for business -- it's boring. Instead, you have the drama provided by bothsidesism, and the tribalistic outrage bait provided by Fox News, and to a much lesser and less successful extent, MSNBC, or whatever they're calling it now. The landscape has shifted dramatically, to the detriment of the public -- although paradoxically, all they're doing is giving the public what it wants.
DeleteThe time you are describing was a brief moment. Hearst made a fortune long before TV with slanted journalism, and newspapers were often rather partisan.
DeleteI will add that, as bad as the internet can be, it’s possible for the average citizen to access information on his/her own without it being filtered thru media corporations or newspaper editors. That wasn’t true back in the day.
DeleteNewspaper profit margins were the highest in history until the internet came along.
Delete"...and newspapers were often rather partisan."
Newspapers weren't "rather partisan;" -- they were extremely partisan. But they were NEWSPAPERS: plural. New York City had a dozen daily newspapers in the 1930s, so there was room for a wide variety of "slants," if you will. That's not the case anymore; in just about every large city or metropolitan area, there's one major newspaper, or more exactly, one online news organization, owned by the same company. What people get now is homogenized slop (owned, directly or indirectly, by the super-wealthy), churned out as cheaply as possible, and calibrated to maximize viewership rather than inform the public.
NPR and PBS present non-profit news.
DeleteTheir audience is relatively small.
DeleteIs John Oliver corporate messaging and tribal propaganda? I find him funny. Is Bill Maher corporate messaging and tribal propaganda? I find him annoying and very confused about which tribe he is appealing to at any given moment. His comedy veneer seems pretty thin. Was Colbert tribal and corporate? I don't think so, given that he got his own corporate employers in trouble so often. Is comedy itself only liberal. Not so much, even setting aside Gutfeld.
ReplyDeleteGutfeld's jokes reflect his political views, but is advancing those views the only reason he is on Fox? It would seem more effective to leave out the jokes and just focus on the propaganda, as occurs on other Fox News shows. I think Somerby is being unfair when he implies they are hacks rather than comedians.
If Somerby liked O'Donnell's jokes, why didn't he repeat some of them? Is there no demand for equal time on Somerby's own tribal corporate messaging with a comedy veneer at this blog?
I do not see what is sad about a newspaper warning young women that bikini waxing may have side effects. Why is something that may be important to women automatically silly and sad to Somerby? Is he so lacking in empathy that he thinks newspapers should only be about the things he personally cares about -- such as sports?
ReplyDeleteNewspapers are deliberately laid out so that any reader can skip the articles they don't care about. So when Somerby calls this silly and sad, he is really saying that only the stuff that appeals to him should appear there at all. He has always had an intolerance for anything that is not "hard news," including celebrity stories and presumably wedding announcements, recipes, puzzles. I don't know why he tolerates movie reviews, financial news, horserace results or comics either. This kind of stuff has always appeared in newspapers, because more content means more ads. Now it means more clicks and more subscribers. What business does Somerby think newspapers are in?
https://youtu.be/XwbqIlj-BiI?si=57pvoXAysfX7bVu1
DeleteSorry I learned it from Somerby.
"But what might a sensible person say about a primetime "cable news" program like this?"
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like it, don't watch it.
From Robyn Pennacchia at Wonkette:
ReplyDelete"One thing you never see people do is claim to be a moderate when they are, in fact, quite far left. For instance, I wouldn’t go around telling people I’m a moderate any more than I’d go around bragging about my beautiful straight blonde hair, as I’d just have to assume that people would know I was lying and that would be very embarrassing for me.
Not so for Tim Pool! Despite being very clearly and blatantly far right, Pool has for years maintained that he is a moderate. He also, as we have seen over the years, truly does not know when to be embarrassed.
Like this time when he went on a very creepy and sad monologue about how people who call him a “bootlicker” for defending ICE were wrong because “It’s my boot!” and he was living vicariously through the ICE officers violently attacking/killing undocumented immigrants and citizens alike."
https://www.wonkette.com/p/just-wait-until-moderate-tim-pool
Obviously, this applies to Somerby too, who claims to be liberal while advancing right wing talking points. Also Bill Maher, who has drifted right but failed to acknowledge it. If Somerby is claiming that Gutfeld claims to be comedy when it is propaganda, at least he is not pretending to be "moderate" when he is far right. Rosie knows which tribe she belongs to. Gutfeld knows which tribe he belongs to. Somerby, not so much.
Tim Pool is getting raked this week.
DeleteCouldn't happen to a bigger piece of shit.
I’m a genuine moderate.
DeleteBeing a lying con artist is not a sin among right wingers:
ReplyDelete"(By the way, yes! That was the disordered former congressman, George Santos, serving as another of Timpf's guests. After President Trump commuted his federal prison sentence, he of course became a semi-regular Gutfeld! guest.)"
Why does this surprise anyone?
They view their lack of integrity as a point of pride.
DeleteNo fucking shame.
DeleteThere's now talk that Stephen Miller is only in the Trump Administration to provide Trump with sexual support.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see this post coming. Eye roll emoji
ReplyDeleteThe Democratic base is fed up with a system that gives inordinate power to the wealthy and to large corporations.
ReplyDeleteOnly in America
ReplyDelete"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is traveling to Iowa in his "personal capacity" the Pentagon said, further fueling speculation that the former Fox News personality is mulling a run for president at some point."
Hector - This story tells us nothing about Hegseth. It does tell us something about WaPo -- the organ that created this preposterous story.
DeleteSpeculation is garbage. Speculation by an anonymous source is garbage^2.