Comparing satire and fake news
Re “Is left-wing satire a form of fake news?” Opinion, Jan. 8
Stephen Marche creates a false equivalency between political satire shows and fake news stories. Fake news spreads when it speaks not to reality but to the fears of its target audience, whereas satire is only effective if at the heart of the joke is a powerful kernel of truth.
The viewers of “The Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight” and “Full Frontal” are in on the joke because they recognize the truth that it’s built on. There’s a big difference between laughing at bits about President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” and sharing a fake story about how Hillary Clinton is running a child sex ring out of a pizza shop.
Satire is a powerful tool to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. We’re going to need a lot of it to survive the Trump administration. Clifford J. Tasner North Hollywood
Is satire just as bad as the calculated manipulation of desperate people through the proliferation of vicious, bald-faced lies? I don’t think so.
Still, Jonathan Swift’s observation that satire is a mirror in which viewers see everybody’s face but their own is buzzing around in my head like a fruit fly. In a time when we like our truth delivered with a thick coat of conservative or liberal varnish, the unvarnished truth is that Marche is on to something important.
Our seemingly voracious appetite for comfortable distortions of truth gave us a president-elect who bears more resemblance to the naked emperor of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” than to the leader of the United States. We have a tough job ahead of us if we are to remain an evolving democracy, and it will start with overcoming our addiction to all that is easy, entertaining and divisive. Ina Scott Lancaster
I get it. Marche is using the double edges of false equivalencies and non sequiturs to suggest that satire is not a vital feature of societies that are open, free, dynamic and selfcritical — just like the rich traditions of satire in Russia, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. James Harless Tustin
No, Mr. Marche, leftwing satire is not anything like fake news.
Using humor (which includes satire) is merely a way people cope when faced with an extremely unpleasant or frightening situation. Ask any therapist — it’s considered a healthy way to deal with it. Stacey Nicholas Laguna Hills