Alison Hammond might end up being the person to save us all.
If you're not familiar with Alison, for us here in the US, she is one of the hosts of the Great British Bake Off, a show I HIGHLY recommend. Not only because it's a warm, happy hug in a world where everything is broken glass and razor blades, but because Alison is so damn funny as the host. A shout-out to the VERY entertaining Noel Fielding, who co-hosts with her (seriously, more shows with both of them would be so nice!), but Alison is so funny and unrestrained in her interactions.
I mentioned how much we love Alison to a friend, and they said, "Did you ever see her interview with Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling about Blade Runner 2049?" No, we hadn't. Alison is also a co-host on This Morning, a morning entertainment/talk/news show on ITV in England, and she was interviewing the two stars about the movie. Harrison Ford is usually so gruff, but Alison gets both him and Ryan absolutely rolling. This is sensational. It's warmth for dark, cold days.
On a more serious note, we owe John Oliver a debt of gratitude. Not only does he expose the worst of the worst on his sensational Last Week Tonight, but occasionally he does real journalism and exposes a truth that's hiding in front of our faces.
This last week, John had a full segment on Bari Weiss becoming the new head of news at CBS. Not only does he point out she is kind of weird, extremely full of herself, and grossly unqualified for the job she now inherits, what he really does is expose the way the far-Right is hiding their agents and agendas right in front of our very eyes.
Weiss has often presented herself as a person who should be liberal but is not afraid to disagree with the left, but at the same time, she seems to be pushing a haphazard, kinda-MAGA agenda with her news coverage. The Free Press, her "news" outlet she ran before this new gig, was purchased for an amount that seems to grossly overvalue what The Free Press was actually worth, and she is not reporting to the head of CBS broadcasting, but rather to the owner, wealthy billionaire and Trump supporter himself, Larry Ellison.
What Oliver shows us is that, as much as Weiss and her wildly incompetent crew at The Free Press scream about political agendas seeping into news coverage of outlets they no longer work for (New York Times, NPR), they themselves eagerly and proudly insert THEIR political ideology into their news coverage (the story on starving Palestinian children alone tells you a lot about who these horrible people really are).
This is where we are at today. The Right has its unapologetic far-right media outlets (Fox, OAN, NewsMax, Sinclair), but now they're also starting to create a new kind of right-wing news outlet, one that still presents the news with a very pro-Right narrative and agenda, but packaged as "courageous" journalists, bitter and wronged because they were supposedly hurt by those big, mean liberals, when in truth they are only screaming those things to hide their true agenda.
One final funny thing for the week. I still think Community Calendar on The Late Show is one of my favorite bits they've done. Last night, they returned to Minooka, Illinois, with Nick Offerman for their latest Community Calendar!
Make sure to stay up to date on your vaccinations, including the latest COVID ones.
Have a great weekend!
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