January 13, 2012
Daily Show on Harrop's Hypocrisy
Marc Comtois
Last August I took ProJo columnist Froma Harrop to task for being hypocritical because she called Tea Partiers "terrorists" while at the same time being the Chair of the National Conference of Editorial Writers that oversees the Civility Project. Now, as Ted Nesi posts, the Daily Show tries to square the circle with comedic results.
If nothing else, Harrop shows she's a good sport. (UPDATE: But others think she just didn't get that she was being lampooned).
12:00 PM
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I just fell out of my chair. Now that is hilarious. I hope she makes a statement one way or the other, but either way, she's going to look kinda dumb for it. Either she had no idea she was being lampooned and that's pretty dumb or she knew and if that's the case, why hasn't she previously apologized for her hypocrisy?
Posted by: Patrick at January 13, 2012 1:46 PMI have always thought of Froma's work as a "humor column".
Posted by: Warrington Faust at January 13, 2012 3:25 PMVery funny, and come on, folks. She's not living under a rock. Nice to see Harrop can laugh about herself.
Posted by: Russ at January 13, 2012 4:19 PMThat, my friends, is why she is a left wing columnist and not a TV pundit. Fox should call her for a regular segment but I am afraid this is as good as she gets. Imagine her trying to explain the D-good, R-bad line every week, just as she writes.
Posted by: dave at January 13, 2012 4:19 PMAt least toward the end, she seemed to understand that she was being lampooned to a degree. I'm sure she expected this from The Daily Show, but they probably asked to interview her about the "civility project" generally. As for her specific talking points, she was absolutely serious. She posted exactly the same nonsensical justifications on her personal blog after the incident.
I'll never understand why people refuse to simply say, "I made a mistake" rather than spending the rest of their life as a laughing stock and defending the indefensible.
Posted by: Dan at January 13, 2012 4:22 PMShe clearly understood the gist of the commentary. (Although I always wonder how much editing is actually done for these comedic news send-ups... do they cut in different, more humorous, questions to match the responses they've already filmed, and that sort of thing.)
There were a couple of moments when I don't think she quite got it, and may not even now (such as the "irony" exchange).
Posted by: Justin Katz at January 13, 2012 5:21 PMWho names a kid Froma?I went to high school with a girl named Hazleteen Linton,but even that was betetr than Froma.
Posted by: joe bernstein at January 13, 2012 7:15 PMI also don't know how much of her reaction was real. I imagine that, as a leftist, she expected to be immune from Daily Show criticism and/or mockery and was taken by surprise as it became apparent she was to be the butt of that segment's joke.
Posted by: David P at January 13, 2012 9:23 PM