Astutely analyzed but dryly written. Not exactly a knee-slapper for the general reading public, though its insights will...
Political humor on late-night TV is serious business, as three academics show in this study.
Listed as lead author, Lichter (Communication/George Mason Univ.; co-author: The Global President: International Media and the U.S. Government, 2013, etc.) is the director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which has been tracking political humor on TV for a quarter-century, compiling a database of 102,435 jokes from 1992 through 2011. Why 1992? It inaugurated “the golden age of political humor”—partly due to the change in the mainstream media culture, which now felt free to report salacious details of private lives that might previously have been kept secret (giving JFK, FDR and others a comparatively free pass), and partly due to the variety and latitude afforded by cable. Perhaps most importantly, however, was the ascendance of “scandalizer-in-chief” Bill Clinton, who “easily trumps his competitors as the all-time favorite target of late night comedians.” The academic prose by committee, augmented by graphs and charts, provides a jarring contrast with the edginess of the jokes, many of them still very funny (if dated). There is some provocative conjecture on how the negativity of the jokes (which almost all of them are) affects the public perceptions of the politicians and the process as a whole, though the authors admit that their work “shows how difficult it is to sort out the relationship among news, jokes and candidate evaluations” and that “if the jokes follow from the news, then it may be the news that is having the real effect.” Yet this study could well serve as a resource for other cultural analyses written in a livelier fashion, and it should be required reading for political strategists whose candidates’ images are both shaped and reflected by TV humor.
Astutely analyzed but dryly written. Not exactly a knee-slapper for the general reading public, though its insights will find their ways into the mainstream media.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8133-4717-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Westview/Perseus
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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