Michelle Wolf Is a Hero

From Harper's BAZAAR

“The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

That was always taught to me as the credo of the free press.

And boy, has the press ever done a good job lately of comforting the afflicted. That’s true whether they regard the afflicted as angry white men who want an ethnostate, or angry white men who are Nazis now, or angry white men who are angry they can’t call for women to die.

Oh, do those seem like the people who are doing the afflicting? Well, no matter.

In an attempt to gain readers and viewers, the press seems to have veered so far away from their mission that they have entirely forgotten who has power and who does not. So I will help spell it out: Republicans control every branch of government. On a daily basis, they institute policies that discriminate against the most marginalized communities. This week it’s cutting back health care protections for transgender people. Next week, who knows?

The people with governmental control are not themselves, victims, no matter how much they want to claim they are. They are very comfortable.

After Michelle Wolf’s blistering, honest, take-down of the Trump administration during theWhite House Correspondents' dinner-an event Trump will not even attend, presumably because it would cut into the time he spends trying to undermine the free press-journalists responded with outrage. She made a joke about abortion! She-and this was a big one-declared that, “[Sarah Huckabee Sanders] burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”

Journalists like Mika Brzezinski immediately chimed in, declaring “Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable.”

Maggie Haberman from the New York Times remarked,“That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.”

And those are relatively liberal journalists.

Those from conservative outlets like Gabby Morrongiello declared, “Abortion is not something to joke about or cheer for. I was disgusted by tonight’s comedic routine at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner and, as a member of the White House Correspondents’ Association, will no longer be paying dues to the organization.”

Trump, of course, tweeted about the dinner, saying, “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. The filthy 'comedian' totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers [sic] weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!”

It is surreal to see a joke about abortion met with more condemnation than the fact that senators are suggesting the death penalty for women who have abortions. It is insane to think that a female comedian using the world “pussy” is more upsetting than the President bragging about grabbing pussies. It is bizarre to see that commenting on Sarah Huckabee Sander’s eyeshadow is considered horrible, while pointing out that she is a liar seemingly provokes no outrage. And, oh, for the record, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lies a lot. Declaring-as Michelle Wolf did at the end of her speech-that Flint doesn’t have clean water shouldn’t be considered more outrageous than the fact that Flint still doesn’t have clean water.

If those in power don’t like the mirror Michelle Wolf held up to their world, then perhaps they should work on what is in the mirror.

And if you find yourself wondering why aspects of the media roll over and try to parse this behavior into something that resembles normalcy, or pretend Michelle Wolf was out of line, well, they need the access. They gain a lot from access to the President and his coterie.

The part of her speech that almost doubtless troubled the media the most was when she said of 24-hour news stations:

There’s a lot to be gained by being polite as the world burns. You just have to collaborate with the arsonists a little bit.

Certainly, the White House Correspondents' Association seems to feel that’s okay. They issued an statement, claiming,“Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not divide people. Unfortunately the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”

What did they think a vigorous and free press looked like? Do they think it just looks like politely praising those in power so as not to divide anyone? That’s not a free press, that’s propaganda.

Michelle Wolf was seemingly expected to stand at the White House Correspondents' dinner and declare “in these divided times, we need good journalism now more than ever” (I have heard this line so often at dinners for journalists it has become rote), and maybe make a few light jokes about Trump’s hair.

She didn’t, because she’s doing her job correctly.

The people running this administration are not friends to journalists. They do not need to be treated as such. They are not friends to anyone but the already comfortable. The real disappointment isn’t the “filthy” language Michelle Wolf used, it’s that she seems to be the only person in America willing to afflict them.

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