10 Political Satires That Told the Truth

Mike Edison, a blogger from the Huffington Post, wrote an amusing article about political satires in October 2012. The body of his piece talks about how parody is easy, but satire takes work.  He had a new book coming out called Bye Bye, Miss American Pie that

takes that free-swinging approach to the stark absurdity of the American election process -- and the attendant hyperventilating media coverage -- but with a more patient and literary spin. After all, there are only so many times one can Photoshop Bill O'Reilly onto his knees before it ceases to be inspired. 

Edison also has a list of the top 10 political satires.  On the lists he includes things like the Colbert Roberts, movies like 'The Candidate' and books such as Animal Farm.  Below is what he has to say about Colbert.  Check out the article for the full list. 



I have a feeling — at least if a non-scientific poll of my left-leaning Facebook friends is any indictor — that the liberals who complain most loudly about Fox News do not actually watch it. Personally I cant get enough of Bill O’Reilly, in the same way I can’t wait for Darth Vader to come on the screen when I am watching Star Wars. And as any serious fan of westerns, Wagner, or professional wrestling will tell you, we all come to see the villains. The thing about O’Reilly — who is the prime inspiration for Stephen Colbert’s caricature “Stephen Colbert” — is that he is impossibly good at what he does. He is a bully, and he wins every argument, by any means necessary. Like a bad guy in the WWE, he never hesitates to play dirty. He cheats with out-of-hand dismissal of facts (“Oh c’mon! You cant be serious!”) or by simply making shit up. He is as low-down and unscrupulous as they come. Hannity, Doocy, Van Susteren, and the rest are just annoying mouthpieces, but O’Reilly, well, they should have got Jack Palance to play him in a movie when it was still possible. Colbert’s genius is that he plants his stake firmly in O’Reilly’s backyard as a blowhard, but his wit and intelligence still shine through his kayfabe heel. If more of Colbert’s viewers actually watched the thing they enjoyed making fun of, they would be horrified.

$4.2 billion price tag and rising

2012 election priciest to date: $4.2 billion tab and rising

• At least $4.2 billion is estimated to have been spent in the 2012 elections
• Ad agencies were among those who were paid the most money from the campaigns
• Companies run by former campaign insiders made big money as well

Where does all this money go?

• Buys television ads ($750 million was spent on 1.1 million Presidential and congressional ads)
• On-line image campaigns
• Direct-mail outreach 
• Phone banks used to call prospective voters.
• The battleground states also brought big paydays to companies in Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia and Iowa.

GMMB  
GMMB is a Washington-based ad firm run by Bill Clinton's 1992 former media strategist Jim Margolis. According to October 25 public data from the FEC, the firm has been paid so far $47.16 million to build and buy the ads on behalf of the Obama campaign.

"The campaign has spent in excess of $400 million on advertising during this cycle," Margolis told CNN. "All of those dollars have come through GMMB, to be paid out to stations. But It doesn't stay here. It goes out to pay for all the advertising you see on TV."

American Rambler Productions LLC 

American Rambler Productions LLC received the most money from the Romney campaign. The campaign messaging and advertising specialists received $41.85 million. Unlike the other top firms making a profit from this election, its online profile is nearly non-existent.

Targeted Victory

Romney's campaign has used Targeted Victory. The Romney camp has spent $3.1 million with the agency. Zac Moffatt, who is Romney's digital director, co-founded the company. He was on leave to work at the center of Romney's staff -- evidence of how important the campaign considered its digital strategy. 

Best Election Night Photos

Check out CNNs link to the best photos of the 2012 Election night.  

327,000 Tweets

Did you know...

More than 327,000 tweets were sent per minute at the height of the site’s traffic when it was announced that Obama had won re-election.

The Presidential election also set the record for the most tweeted about event in U.S. political history with an astonishing 31 million tweets sent.

In comparison, Election Day annihilated the previous 10 million tweets record set during the first Presidential debate just over a month ago.

 

The Obama campaign used Twitter at an 8-1 ratio in comparison to Mitt Romney.

 

President Obama also set a Twitter record when he tweeted his "4 more years" tweet with a picture of him hugging Michelle Obama.  This broke the previous record (held by Justin Bieber) of the most re-tweeted tweet of all time.

 

Read the full article here