THE SERIOUS BIT AT THE BEGINNING

I don’t know if this is a foreword, a preface, or an introduction (my appendix is already removed). For years as a comedian, I only watched television news to keep up with current events. At the beginning of my career, my comedy was not very concerned with politics.

That all changed with the Iraq war. The lies of government and the lazy complicity of the media made me realize that politics has consequences. After countless nights of throwing shoes at my television, I ran out of shoes and looked for alternatives, but throwing televisions at my shoes hurt my back.

Realizing the problems facing America are too important not to make fun of, I started bringing my views on stage with me. I’ve been a professional comedian my entire life, but I’m really just a member of the public. In my Comedy Central specials, media appearances, and radio shows, I have tried to put the “public” back into the “public discourse.” The mainstream media serves power instead of questioning it—the incestuous beltway punditocracy talks to itself, trying to curry favor or maintain “access”—indulging in a discourse completely divorced from the lives and realities of working Americans.

TV news has become a haven for careerists and opportunists. When the economy collapsed, the supposed business “experts” didn’t know what hit them. After the wars in the Middle East dragged on, there was no Hall of Shame for the pundits that got it wrong—they never had to face disgrace while American soldiers faced bullets. The talking heads that engage in the most odious race-baiting are rewarded with promotions and more air time. These same think-tank Mediaocrities continue to contaminate the news cycles, calling for the persecution of patriots like Snowden and Manning, just as they derided the people who opposed the Iraq war a decade ago.

Watch the commercials for the Sunday morning shows, and you’ll see that they’re sponsored by your friendly local military contractor. I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on purchasing a 747 anytime soon . . . so why does Boeing buy airtime every Sunday?

CNN seems designed for necrophiliacs. Fox News panders to the demographic that needs their prejudices confirmed (you’d think Fox News would support universal healthcare just to keep their geriatric audience alive). It’s called “old media” for a reason. No wonder viewers are leaving network news in droves. Young people are finding alternatives on the Internet, where voices can be uncensored and more honest.

It’s easy to fixate on Fox News—the Lee Atwater wet-dream network (the Southern Strategy made national)—but they’re only part of the problem. You can imagine the Hannitys and O’Reillys cashing their monthly million-dollar checks with the rationalization that, instead of giving the public what it needs, they give it what it wants. Sadly, they still successfully pollute the public’s perception of important issues. Bush lied us into a war, Obama lied us into healthcare—which one are you more upset by?

The media is only one facet of the deeper problem in America. That problem is money in politics. Our elected officials serve money and not the people. This is not because all of them are inherently corrupt, but because our political system has been retrofitted to accommodate the interests of the wealthy. Politicians give lip service to issues like inequality and then give actual lip service to the corporations responsible for it (the hooker behind the liquor store type of lip service). The two parties are conglomerated with moneyed interests as election campaigns have become open markets of legal bribery. The most loyal corporate soldiers are rewarded with lobbying or consultant jobs after serving their time in political office.

This is money without nationality or loyalty or empathy—and it has the loudest voice in our country. The ultimate aim of American politics today is figuring out how the wealthy can persuade the most amount of people to use their vote to keep wealth in power. Of course, society’s struggle against concentrations of power is eternal. But we are far away from the era of trust-busting and the New Deal that gave working Americans a say in the future for them and their families. Today the pendulum has swung dangerously far with little sign of it swinging back.

Don’t think it’s all doom and gloom. In America, the people are better than their politicians, and with social issues, the public is far ahead of its supposed representatives. The sweep of history favors progressive ideals and social justice—that is a truism proven every day. As the country embraced gay marriage, gun control, legalized marijuana, and said “NO!” to a war in Syria, and doesn’t seem very hot on reigniting the cold war, politicians and news anchors had to play catch up with the American people.