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Colbert vs. Meyers: Who Did The Clinton Email Scandal Better?

By Emily Cutler | Late Night TV | August 24, 2016 |

By Emily Cutler | Late Night TV | August 24, 2016 |


At this point, the media must be using a blank template on all of their election news. “Trump Said (Blank). Enrages (Blank).” or “(Blank) Emails Released From Hillary’s Server. What Does This Mean For Her Campaign?” It’s become the election between the Hack and the Hack with the actual coverage being the only new item.

But before we compare how late night’s best political commentators stack up, I do have a minor complaint. Hillary, what are you doing? There’s an actual rule for accounting (please don’t fall asleep yet, I’ll make this quick) that auditors need to be free from conflicts of interest in both fact and appearance. Meaning there is no investigative body required to prove that someone has done something wrong. Rather the onus is on the individual auditor to guarantee that a reasonable person wouldn’t be suspicious of any actions taken by the auditor. It’s one of the best policies for life I’ve ever heard of. And its especially important for a politician. The fact that Clinton intentionally skirts the law at times makes her a brilliant legal mind and a deeply flawed candidate. So stop making bullshit moves just because they’re technically allowed. You’re only hurting yourself.

So what was the actual coverage like? First up Colbert:

Not bad. I like the HiddleSwift shout out, and the story about Match.com was amusing. Most importantly he thoroughly points out that most of the “suspicion” wasn’t based on actual things, but on the appearance of things. And since he is able to do so without becoming enraged at both the general public for not knowing that this isn’t a thing and Clinton for not knowing that of course this would look like a thing makes him significantly more chill than I am. Overall 3 out of 4 stars.

Meyers took a slightly different take:

Meyers covers the emails scandal, but chooses to focus on the fact that we as the general public can’t really afford to focus on the email scandal. It would be nice to look more closely at the Clintons’ political relationships and the extent to which they are a part of the established political power. But we can’t look at the possible rotten wood in Hillary’s house because Trump’s Toxic Waste Fire McMansion is threatening to burn down the entire neighborhood. We can’t examine the flaws in the adult, lifelong politician because the campaign of an emotional 12-year-old is being partially managed by an actual 12-year-old. Once again, even when news is broken that his political opponent might have made a significant mistake, Trump manages to lower the bar on the whole election. Meyer’s analysis rightly identifies Trump as the bad guy but in a way that doesn’t totally let Clinton off the hook. That’s what good media does.

But most importantly, how many unread emails did you say you have, Colbert?! You just leave them in your inbox? Meyers was right, what sort of sociopath are you? All the stars to Meyers. You go think about what you did, Steven.