Jesters

In many a Medieval court, so I gather, the only one who could safely say the truth to the monarch was the jester, the fool. We've come a long way since then, eh?

Except maybe not at all. Maybe we've gone backwards since then. Maybe today the simple plain truth about many extremely important things is hidden from us, the public, and not just from the most high and mighty. And no, I'm not saying that global warming is a hoax or that lots and lots of aliens have been chillin' underground in a huge secret government complex underneath Roswell since 1947. I'm not talking about secrets held by the government at all. I'm talking about the press, and how much they suck at reporting on politics. Generally speaking.

F.B.I. Regretfully Announces That Hillary Committed No Crimes

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—James Comey, the F.B.I. director, held a press conference on Sunday to “regretfully announce” that Hillary Clinton had committed no crimes related to her e-mails while Secretary of State.

“It is with a deep sense of sadness in my heart that I report that Hillary Clinton committed no crimes,” a visibly emotional Comey said.[...]

That's from Andy Borowitz at The New Yorker, one of the best sources of info on the 2016 Presidential campaign. A humorist, a satirist. "Not even" a "real" reporter. And it's understood that those are not authentic quotes from Comey. But Horowitz nails Comey and brilliantly sums up his role in the campaign, better than all or almost all "real" reporters, almost all of whom are afraid to openly denounce Comey. It's not their place to be as direct as the clown Borowitz, and to say that it's obvious that Comey has tried to use his office to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign, that it's obvious that he's biased in favor of Republicans.

Only jesters like Horowitz are allowed to get right straight to the heart of such important matters. Jesters like Horowitz and Bill Maher. Or to put in another way: those who report on politics and make altogether much sense about it, the way Hunter S Thompson did in 1972, are dismissed as clowns. I'm autistic, I can always be easily dismissed as a clown whether I succeed in being funny or not.

We've come a long way since the Middle Ages when it comes to openly criticizing our leaders? Really? Seems to me that we're in about exactly the same spot.