“When they go low, we go high.”
So Michelle Obama, the former First Lady, advised us, recognizing the toxic political environment that Donald Trump has fostered.
It was a very clear message: We should not surrender to the temptation to respond to ugly insults in kind.
Unfortunately, Michelle Wolf, the comedian who was supposed to provide comic entertainment at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday (April 28), either ignored the advice or was unaware of it.
Whatever the case, Wolf delivered a scathing, vitriolic, profane, vulgar, mean-spirited and hateful 19-minute monologue that left one wanting to take a shower when she finished.
Writing or delivering political satire is always a risk. It takes skill, talent, and a recognition that it is easy to “step over the line.” One wrong word in print or a wrong voice inflection in an oral presentation can turn a well-intentioned joke into an inexcusable offense.
But Wolf’s diatribe was not a disaster because of subtleties inherent in satire. It was an all-out ugly attack, berating not only Trump but his aides, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s press secretary who was sitting only a couple of seats from Wolf’s podium and Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to the president.
Wolf’s performance cannot be attributed to inexperience. While she is not a veteran in comedy, she does have several years’ experience, appearing often on late night TV, and she is a contributor to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. So, she is no amateur.
Indeed, she seemed to recognize early in her monologue that she had lost much of the audience when she ad-libbed that perhaps the association should have done better research on her.
Obviously, I should report to the reader some of her one-liners (I watched her on a video on my computer) but many are too vulgar to print in a mainstream newspaper. With some reluctance, as examples, I will cite the following:
Referring to Conway whom she described as a compulsive liar, Wolf offered, “If a tree falls in the woods, how do we get Kellyanne under that tree?” then adding quickly, “I’m not suggesting she get hurt, just stuck.”
Wolf described Sanders as “an Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women.”
Wolf created a firestorm and many in the media who attended the dinner criticized her. Margaret Talev, the association’s president, issued a statement after the event which read in part:
“Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”
Somewhat understated but, nevertheless, on point, especially the word “civility.”
Wolf also had her defenders such as Howard Fineman, described in the New York Times as a left-leaning NBC and MSNBC analyst. Fineman was quoted as saying:
“Before we criticize Michelle Wolf, let’s remember that Donald Trump has done and said some of the crudest things that any president in history has ever done. Just have a little perspective.”
He apparently also was not familiar with Michelle Obama’s advice. I never accepted the excuse from my children that they should not be held accountable because the kid next door escaped punishment for the same offense.
Kathy Griffin, a comedian who caused a stir by holding up Trump’s decapitated head, tweeted: “Journalism is all about the 1st amendment. If you don’t see the import of what @michelleswolf did tonight then you don’t get it.”
I am very glad I don’t get it.
While we are chastising unacceptable political rhetoric, we might point out that New York Magazine which featured a close up of Trump with a snout also went too far. The depiction was crass and crude, and unnecessary. The magazine had countless ways with which to make its editorial point that the president is guilty of unparalleled greed.
As she reached her conclusion, Wolf suddenly switched gears and tongue-lashed the audience composed primarily of journalists.
She said that the media created “this monster” and Trump has helped the journalists “sell your papers and your books and your TV.” They were now “profiting from him.”
The role of media in creating the Trump presidency is a valid issue, one that needs to be analyzed. But this was neither the time nor place, and Wolf is hardly the “scholar” to do that.
True, Trump has taken us down this road. “He started it,” as Fineman would argue. But it is imperative, if we are ever to reestablish civility in our politics, not to respond in kind. There is too much at stake.
Finally, when you are able to turn Trump and his team into martyrs, then you know you have gone too far.
Berl Falbaum, a West Bloomfield resident, is a veteran journalist and author.