Holier than Dow
June 22, 2010, 8:03 am
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
A sign of the broader impact of the sex abuse crisis on the Daily Show. . .”Goldman Sachs is losing a PR war to the Catholic Church. . . and that’s hard to do. . . ”
Conservative Catholics worry that the crisis has impeded the Church’s ability to speak out on abortion. Liberal Catholics can see here that it impedes the ability of the Church to speak out on issues of social justice, too.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Holier Than Dow | ||||
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A chat alluding to the deference towards professors in the academic environment:
“- Ever since I became a professor, people have stopped complaining about my inability to respect deadlines. They don’t seem to mind any more.
- [sarcastic] That’s because professors can do no wrong. Students and administrative assistants can make mistakes, but in an academic department, everything that professors do is right, by definition.
- Like bishops in the Roman Catholic Church.
[laughs]“
Abortion is an “issue of social justice.”
You’re right, Mark. I should have written “other issues of social justice.” I should only blog when I have time to double check everything I say–even when I mean only to call attention to another piece.
And Claire. . . where does that person teach . . . the professors are always right and deadlines don’t matter. .. wow.
I was very disappointed when I saw this the other night. A lot could be said about it (and I’m sure much will be said here), but what particularly frustrated me was the way in which Samantha (even though she was/is Catholic, apparently) speaks of “the Catholic Church” as monolithic. Even if only for the purposes of comedy and satire, she speaks as if the priests and nuns before her are “the Cathlic Church” — it doesn’t seem to occur to her that they probably want accountability and transparency on the part of the hierarchy as much as she does. For her to describe their opinions in terms of “the Catholic Church wants/says/etc.” is as ridiculous as taking the opinions of, say, some congressperson, or even any American citizen, and drawing from that the conclusion that “America says…” or “the U.S. government says…” etc.
The same problem occurs with regard to members of the hierarchy. If some bishop criticizes this or that, suddenly it becomes, “the Catholic Church condemned XYZ” (notice that it becomes “condemn”). I think that for many, including many Catholics who are sort of on the margins, “the Catholic Church” is this sort of “other,” something foreign and alien — whereas for Catholics who are more involved, the Church is not a monolithic other, but a milieu in which they live, something woven into communities of which they themselves are also a part.
This style of feature is somewhat of a staple on “The Daily Show” – they pick a topic/premise that seems to offer the promise of lotsa yuks, bring in the videotape crew, and heavily edit the resulting interviews.
The lesson, to my mind, is, ‘When the Daily Show film crews show up at your door, run away!’
Yes–but I wonder if this group knew what it was! They don’t look like late-night-tv watchers to me–but that may be stereotyping on my part! My mother watches the Daily Show and Colbert.
With a little creative editing the Sermon on the Mount could be made to look foolish. The technique is unfair and the resultant sketches may have a funny moment here or ther, but basically they are just sophomoric.