On Friday night’s episode of “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel, conservative commentator Michele Malkin attacked cable-television comedians and hosts of late-night talk shows for their “hate-filled” rhetoric against President Donald Trump and Republicans.
"I really don't know how much lower these clowns in late-night can get," Malkin said. "I don't want them to be filtered, I don't want them to be censored. I want them to keep showing America how hate-filled and how vile and how filthy so much of their thinking about public discourse in America really is."
Malkin said the attacks are fueled by a desperation to “stay relevant” and argued late-night shows used to appeal to all audiences, but now don’t.
“There was a time when late-night comedy could appeal to a broad demographic of people in America,” Malkin said. “And, you know, whether it was stupid pet tricks or talking about doing pranks on your kids at Halloween or the bread and butter of so much of late-night TV: having on fellow celebrities to chat about the tinsel-town fluff. But, no, no. These people now, I think, believe so much of their own press … where do these people get off thinking that we actually care about their opinions on serious policy matters?”
Malkin’s view of late-night television isn’t imagined. According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, the number of jokes made about Trump in his first 100 days in office by late-night hosts in their opening monologues smashed the previous record and is currently on pace to break the record for most jokes made about a president in a single year. In his first 100 days, there were 1,060 jokes made about Trump. The record for a single year is 1998, when President Bill Clinton was dealing with his infamous scandal involving Monica Lewinsky.
Justin Haskins
