7 American Talk Shows mock at US Government Shutdown

7 American Talk Shows mock at US Government Shutdown

One of the breaking news last week could be the shutdown of US government. Here http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE2NDkwNDg4.html on the Chinese version of Youtube, Youku, I found a new hit, a collection of 7 popular American talk shows mocking at US shutdown. I find it a good example of political communication, since it to some extent reflects the view of American media and American people on this political event.

“We don’t care!” could be the most common comment among these shows, but the question still remains whether American media and people really do not care the shutdown of their own government. I doubt it because the massive media representation and political commentary, both news and entertaining programs, have already proved the close attention paid to the incident. So do they consider it truly influential and critical to the country and their life? Or they are merely making fun of it as an outsider?

In the clips, there are large numbers of mocks with various elements, for instance, movies, TV speech of president Obama and the popular American drama Breaking Bad. All the mocks and sharp tongue seem to represent the don’t-care attitude of American media and citizens perhaps.

Nonetheless on the other hand, most of the talk shows try to provide background information and causation of the whole story, of which The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is rather typical. House of Republican’s refusal to fund the government, the suggested requirement of getting Obama Care defunded or delayed, and the refusal of government to negotiate and compromise are all covered in Stewart’s show. There are solid information and political communication beyond the skin-deep mocks. The media is providing facts and more or less leading citizens’ political opinion. So it is also reasonable to get the conclusion that they care.

Another trivial but interesting point is the collection is actually made by Chinese instead of American, so does it to some degree stand for international political communication? Is that a message sent to American political issues from Chinese citizens?