The Day the Newsic Died: The Fall of Journalism and the De-fun-ification of Stephen Colbert
Author Walter Kirn talks leaving mainstream media, the future of novels and comedy, and his second-hand-embarrassment for Stephen Colbert
“At a certain point, the media decided it was a priesthood. It decided it had a moral fiber and a history of selfless behavior and ethic that was beyond reproach. The old newspaper reporter who went out and got cops drunk so that they would tell him stuff and hung out with show girls, that guy knew that original sin applied to him too.”
Up in the Air author, Time editor, and newly substacked writer Walter Kirn is selling free thought for a very cheap price. In this funny and raucous extended interview, we deep-dive with Kirn into the incestuous, corrupt, self-pleasuring sea we know as the media.
“What are journalists really?” He asks. “We’re burglars. We’re spies. We’re voyeurs. Gossips.” But when everyone else in the media seemed to forget this, Kirn decided it was time to go.
He shares his thoughts on the future of novels (not a bright one), the dystopian novel that best fits 2021 (by an American, no less), the future of comedy in America (even dimmer), and the de-fun-ification of Stephen Colbert.
It’s a funny and provocative interview with a writer whose sharp journalistic style has become increasingly unmatched. And you can check it out here. Don’t miss it.
I live a short par three from the USA border. I lived in the US for about 15 of my 73 years. I love the USA but I love our secular humanist liberal democracy more.
I do a lot of crying watching the collapse of a great nation that left the path of liberal democracy because Reagan and his ilk said democracy is unAmerican.
Great satire is more painful than laugh inducing. America has a problem with pain killers and mood altering drugs because it cannot deal with truth. It was 140 between Swift's Modest proposal and the Irish genocide because and only because Ireland discovered the potato to feed its underclass.
It never ceases to amaze me how illiberal America's so called liberal elite really is. I can't imagine how oblivious to reality they must be when they accuse Trumpists of being in the grip of a cult of personality.
What is it about Biden's service to a state that is home to more corporations than people that allows the media to present Biden as a liberal. As a senior without a 401k or Canadian Registered retirement savings plan life for all our seniors is fairly secure just as it is for the children being born today.
In a world of excess and unprecedented technological growth the Protestant Work Ethic is a relic of ancient superstition.
"that's the worst case scenario" yeah, borderline hyperbole? I dunno, I'm not a writer, but even the wokest woke police in my circles don't make these things that 'problematic'. Maybe just don't be a dick? I guess I'm not living a representative reality.