NPR typically hates everything about Fox News, so it was shocking when snobby Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon interviewed Fox late-night host Greg Gutfeld. It’s much more typical for NPR to toss roses at Stephen Colbert when he’s selling a new cookbook on non-commercial radio. Oh, and then add a 45-minute Fresh Air interview on top of that. Ka-ching!
Simon began by noting the ratings: “Greg Gutfeld dominates late-night comedy. His show, Gutfeld!, on Fox, airs an hour earlier than his rivals but has a larger audience than those of Colbert, Kimmel, Fallon or The Daily Show.”
Then he noted the ideology, unlike Colbert. He has “conservative comics” on his show, and engages in “insult conservatism.” (Please recall all the insult liberalism all over late night — not to mention all over NPR shows like Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!…like when they insulted Fox’s Peter Doocy.)
SCOTT SIMON: I bet you’ve read and heard some of the labels applied to your comedy — insult conservatism, mean, provocative. Do you want to give us another label? What do you think of those?
GREG GUTFELD: Fun. It’s fun. Anytime somebody describes something as mean, it’s because it doesn’t align with their beliefs, and they’re kind of upset about it, but also, they kind of wish that they had the freedom to say it as well. I take it as a badge of honor if somebody says that I’m being mean, and I’m just having fun.
They noted he mocked Wlodomyr Zelensky for having a “Napoleon complex,” and he joked about how this was fun because he himself is short.
Then Simon started running clips of Gutfeld! that fit “insult conservatism,” apparently. For example, “According to a new survey, nearly 10% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ. The other 90% identify as who gives a [expletive].” Gutfeld explained:
GUTFELD: What I meant to get at is that nobody cares. I actually have a very serious, I guess, philosophy about identity politics. I think it’s a terrible thing to lead with. I am all for being an individual. And when you start talking about these characteristics that define you, it’s actually not defining you at all. And you can see the misery on people’s faces who kind of buy into identity politics. […]
— Read More: www.newsbusters.org
