Media Matters Takedown of Fox News’ Own “Hollywood Elites” Feels Like a Daily Show Clip

Fox News: Jimmy Kimmel isn’t qualified to talk politics

Also Fox News: pic.twitter.com/oXjWTxqYS0

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 21, 2017

We’ve reported more than once, over the past few days, on Jimmy Kimmel’s use of his late night show to call out the latest Republican health care bill and how it fails the very standards that one of its primary sponsors promised him on television. However, as is so often the case, those who disagree with Kimmel decided to disagree not with the points he raised, but with his very right to be a political advocate in the first place.

That’s absurd for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that Kimmel’s take on the health care bill has been supported by independent analysis several times over, while the Republican senators who back the bill don’t even care that they can’t get a full picture of its consequences from the Congressional Budget Office before voting on it. But perhaps the best way to combat this ridiculous argument is the strategy employed above by Media Matters.

In the Fox News compilation, they demonstrate that the network, over and over again, brings on celebrity guests to talk about politics, despite that a frequent talking point of right wing commentators is that celebrities like Kimmel should “stick to [whatever their profession is.]” Not to mention how one of their own hosts complained that Kimmel was a “Hollywood Elitist,” which could easily be applied to their own famous friends. That line of thinking belies the fact that the cable news hosts themselves aren’t much different—just a lot less (intentionally) comedic—let alone the celebrity guests they’re OK putting on their air to convince people, as long as their political opinions match up.

I’m not saying Fox should stop bringing celebrity guests on to talk politics. I’m saying we need to retire the “stick to comedy/acting/writing/whatever” and “Hollywood Elites” line entirely. The clip doesn’t need anything else to be a complete farce, other than just showing the hypocrisy unfold time and time again. Luckily, with John McCain saying he will vote no on the Graham-Cassidy bill, it seems that the Republican effort has failed, and it’s time for bipartisan action—even Republican Senator Joni Earnst just admitted as much after the McCain development, to applause:

.@SenJoniErnst gets a Graham-Cassidy Q. “I’ll be honest, it seems unlikely that we’ll be voting on this.” Room bursts into applause.

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 22, 2017

(featured image: screengrab)

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