The school shooting in Newtown, Conn., made for an awkward subject for the usually topical comedy of late-night television, but two hosts did try to engage the subject Monday night, though not in any way that resembled their conventional approach to commenting on the news.
On CBS, David Letterman spent the entire second portion of his show rambling heartfelt musings on the pain of the event and the feelings of futility behind most attempts at solutions to such acts of violence.
On ABC, Jimmy Kimmel opened his monologue with an expression of sympathy for the town and the families of the victims, but he could barely get through his brief comments because his voice was so choked.
Mr. Letterman spent more time on the subject, over six minutes, expressing his own concerns as the parent of a young boy he occasionally brings to school. “What? Are we supposed to be worried about dropping our kids off at school now?” Mr. Letterman said. “I never worried about it before; I always thought, well, school is a good place where my son will be free of the idiot decisions made by his father.”
The comedian called the problem multifaceted. “It’s not about guns. It’s not about mental health necessarily.”
But he questioned the need for assault-type weapons with clips capable of carrying 30 rounds of ammunition. “Why do you need that?” he said. “You can have guns; 50 percent of households have guns, so we’re never going to say you can’t have guns.”
He ended by praising President Obama for his appearance at the prayer service in Newtown on Sunday night and his promise in the speech to try to contain gun violence. “He’s going take some action, so we feel better about that,” Mr. Letterman said. “In a small measure I feel better that he’s looking out for us in that regard.”
Mr. Kimmel also cited Mr. Obama’s remarks, saying, “The President said what needed to be said.”
But he only barely managed to get through a message to the families: “We’re thinking about you.”
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/for-late-night-hosts-a-struggle-to-confront-the-news/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.