When I accepted “The Daily Show”’s invitation to be interviewed about my opposition to a minimum wage increase, I knew that I was walking into a trap. But given how counterproductive I know such an increase would be to those the law proposes to help, I took the risk anyway.
Of the more than four hours of taped discussion I conducted, the producers chose to only use about 75 seconds of my comments. Of those, my use of the words “mentally retarded” (when Samantha Bee asked me who might be willing to work for $2 per hour – a figure she suggested) has come to define the entire interview. Although I had no intention of offending anyone, I just couldn’t remember the politically correct term currently in use (it is “intellectually disabled”). Assuming she knew it, Bee could have prompted me with the correct term, but she chose not to. By including those comments in the final package, “The Daily Show” proved that they did not care who they offended, as long as they could make me look bad in the process. The volume of hate mail I have received in the show’s aftermath confirms their success on that front.
Folks think shows like The Daily Show and SNL are “edgy”. But to be “edgy” you have to mock the beliefs of your audience. While that sometimes happens, it’s not often enough to make me watch either. Which is too bad, since the early Stewart show was funny…
75 seconds? You were lucky.
If your remarks are not usable, all of them disappear.
Really, now. Only a fool would try to turn this around and blame the Daily Show his asinine comments.
Schiff says “Called the current bear market before it began.” What world does this financial analyst live in? The market dips 4% AFTER a 125% rise and he’s calling it a bear market?
He says ” Mentally retarded will work for $2 an hour.”
Who is this genius?
@Richard Wheeler:
Do you think the mentally retarded are offended by being called mentally retarded? Or is it just the “feel good” crowd that cares?
While we’re on the Daily Show topic, I enjoyed his little skit about Obama being in the ” F**k it” phase of his presidency. Yes, that’s true, and he started that phase on Jan 20, 2009