Who would have thought that after 50 years the Cleaver brothers would be looked back upon as media visionaries? The insight and stark analysis preserved in this video unmistakably marks them as the intellectual peers of Minow, McLuhan, and Colbert.<\/p>\n
The video above contains an actual clip from Leave It To Beaver. In the episode’s customary moralistic epilogue, the boys tackle the same defects in television news that Jon Stewart so elegantly skewered in his now famous Crossfire appearance.<\/p>\n
Seeing this icon of innocence and family values humorously addressing a media problem that persists 50 years later, illustrates just how entrenched these problems are (and how easy they are to make fun of). But the fact that we’re still laughing at the same jokes is a bit disheartening. It’s not exactly an affirmation of progress.<\/p>\n
The parade of prattling pundits that populate the closing credits are only a taste of the Blathering Class that infects our national discourse with deceit, diversion and division. And yet, people watch. Are we gluttons for punishment, addicted to conflict, or just starved for knowledge and hoping some will inadvertently reveal itself?<\/p>\n
I don’t know. I guess I watch too much TV. Have a Happy Froth of July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In honor of Independence Day I offer this reprise of a video I produced almost five years ago that embraces the naive wisdom found in the Golden Age of American television. Is this a great country or what? Who would have thought that after 50 years the Cleaver brothers would be looked back upon as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,1,15],"tags":[910],"class_list":["post-4797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-culture","category-general","category-humor","tag-beaver-cleaver"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1fn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=273","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":0},"title":"Leave It To Blather","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/2\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Leave It To Blather Who would have thought that after 50 years the Cleaver brothers would be looked back upon as media visionaries? But the insight and stark analysis preserved in this video unmistakably marks them as the intellectual peers of Minow, McLuhan, and Colbert. This archival footage was discovered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2271,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2271","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":1},"title":"Glenn Beck Uncovers Homer Simpson’s Clandestine Plot","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/30\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With the myriad enemies that America is facing in this tumultuous age of terrorism, leave it to Glenn Beck to investigate and unveil one of the most dastardly schemes ever perpetrated on our unsuspecting nation. Only someone with the delusional paranoia of Beck could have discovered this lurking danger. Thank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3578,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3578","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":2},"title":"Glenn Beck’s New Year Off To A Rousing Flop","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/4\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"First the good news: Glenn Beck dropped by New York's WOR radio station over poor ratings. The largest commercial market in the country is ditching Glenn Beck. That's gotta hurt. Especially since Beck's Philadelphia affiliate previously announced that they were dumping him as well. Is this the beginning of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1571,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1571","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":3},"title":"Generation Zero vs. Capitalism: A Love Story","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/24\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Night Sean Hannity devoted the entire hour of his Fox News program to the documentary \"Generation Zero.\" This morning Fox Nation featured it on their web site as a \"Must-See\" film. Generation Zero recently made its public debut at the Tea Baggers Ball in Nashville and was subsequently screened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2310,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2310","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":4},"title":"Tales From The Crippled Brain Of Glenn Beck","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/2\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hard to tell whether Glenn Beck has completely given up trying to make sense of anything he says, or if he is actually working harder than ever to spin new mythologies and horror stories. The result is that his ravings have become more fantastical and less rooted to reality\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50962,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=50962","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":5},"title":"Tucker Carlson Attacks White House Parental Leave Policy, Which Fox News Also Offers","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/15\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Leave it to the Fox News Senior Hate Monger, Tucker Carlson, to find a way to malign fatherhood, while viciously insulting LGBTQ people, and simultaneously displaying rank hypocrisy, all with the smirk of an elitist, trust fund baby, shielded from consequences by his right-wing employer. On Thursday evening Carlson was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tucker Carlson Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/carlson-fox-sick-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/carlson-fox-sick-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/carlson-fox-sick-3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4797"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4828,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797\/revisions\/4828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}