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A few months ago, Disney executives held a secret meeting with members of the ABC News program “The View.” Things had become so hateful on the morning program that some Disney board members were loudly complaining.
The message delivered was “knock off the hate, ladies.”
The primary culprit was Joy Behar, a bitter leftist. Another problem was Sunny Hostin, who’s even more to the left of Behar and equally as vicious. The two would routinely gang up on Meghan McCain, Disney’s token non-liberal. Ms. McCain often fired back emotionally. The presentation was about as entertaining as a snake bite. Last week Meghan McCain quit the show.
"The View" always had an edge but its creator, Barbara Walters, maintained a strict civility. Rosie O’Donnell could not abide that but Whoopi Goldberg is not a vicious person and did her best to provide some decorum.
But once Donald Trump began to dominate the discourse, civility collapsed on The View as well as many other TV forums.
For example, late-night comedians have pretty much destroyed themselves as mass-market entertainers. Stephen Colbert was never the talent Jon Stewart is but could once deliver a satirical take that amused. No longer. Colbert is now a venomous left-wing zealot who is impossible to watch unless you live in his blatantly partisan tent.
Same thing with the snarky leftist Seth Myers, a man desperately in need of a funny reboot.
Mean is not humorous or engaging or enlightening. Mean is simply mean, a posture with no socially redeeming value. There is an audience for sadistic, unfair attacks but it’s a pathetically narrow crew. This is why the late-night vitriolic can’t even get three million people to watch them. Johnny Carson got nine million.
There is mean on the right as well but, on television at least, conservative haters are vastly outnumbered. On the internet, the mean new deal is on full display as wretched 'Cruella's' aggressively change lanes on the low road.
It’s all pretty depressing and meaningless, pardon the pun. Our media culture is flat-out nasty, blatantly sadistic, and getting worse.
It's long past time to call these people out.
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