Just now at 10-11pm Sunday 13 August 2017 watched CNN’s review of political comedy in recent history, from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump.
Repeatedly I heard the message “You can’t trust politicians”.
This is an incredibly corrosive and dangerous message and obscures the very important truth that there are many politicians who are seriously dedicated to improving quality of life.
Repeatedly I saw good honest politicians — Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter — diminished and derided by professional comics. Whose task in life is to entertain. If they entertain by skewering bad policy, corruption, they do a public service. But if they entertain through indiscriminately promoting disrespect and contempt for public figures, they destroy trust and produce an atmosphere where no one knows what to believe.