When Is It Satire?

The last few days social media have been flooded with mockery and debate prompted by President Trump’s comments about injecting disinfectants as a cure for coronavirus. This comes at the same time that the FDA cautioned against the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 treatment. I have nothing to contribute to that noise, nor do I think anything I might say or write will change the opinions of anyone in my relationship circle and certainly not any one in a position to influence public policy.

However, this cacophony has stimulated further thought on something that I have been pondering for quite some time. At this point, I have no intention of posting to social media, but as I have done a couple of other time, posted in my blog as a way of getting something in words so I can get it out of my mind.

“Fake news” has become a mechanism and slogan in our recent political environment. Of course, spreading mis-information is hardly new and not limited to journalism, but in our time of such intense political polarization it seems to have reached a fever pitch. On one side are the knowing and unintentional disseminators of “fake news.” I know my opinion is not shared by everyone, but FOX News seems to have raised fake news to almost an art form. Yes, they have been compelled to make corrections to blatant untruth, but their approach goes beyond being shaped by their editorial positions. I get a grim chuckle when I see them referred to as Faux News. While not as blatant, or perhaps just more subtle, CNN is a sort of counterpoint from the political left to FOX’s political right.

While responsible journalists aspire to objectivity, human reality is that we understand and present everything through our own perspective and presuppositions. That is not inherently wrong as long as it is acknowledged. In theory, a free press becomes a sort of check and balance system. When one outlet detects intentional or unintentional error in another outlet, they call each other on it, with the expectation that truth can emerge from the back and forth. The free press (envisioned not only in the US Constitution) did not anticipate the concentration of so much power and influence in such a small group of very wealthy people who would dominate television and other modern media outlets. As much as conservatives rail against the “liberal media,” the controlling money and power insures pretty conservative messages.

On the other side of the promulgation of “fake news” is the use of the label “fake news” as a way of dismissing, discrediting, or evading unwelcome reality. This has been a very common political strategy in recent years, not only as practiced by politicians but by many public figures when they or the organizations they lead come under scrutiny. Even in unstructured public and private discourse such as on social media, the “fake news” label is a frequent way of just not acknowledging much less addressing things that do not fit opinions and presuppositions.

My observation is that this “fake news” phenomena in its variety of forms has brought us to the place where knowing what to believe is nigh unto impossible. In the debates over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, scientific credibility of claimed for clearly contradictory opinions and even data. Those who we have traditionally trusted as objectively looking out for all of our interests (such as CDC) have had their credibility undermined by an onslaught of counterclaims of “scientific evidence” that they have nefarious motives for distorting the information and recommendations they are making. This feed on or into the spread of a host of fear mongering conspiracy theories that seems to be growing in appeal lately.

All of this is a long way around to get to the question that prompted my writing. How do we recognize when something is satire or being presented as real? For whatever reason, perhaps because of my relationships with a broad range of church people, I seem to see things from The Babylon Bee fairly often. They clearly present themselves as satire. Yet, not infrequently someone will take them at face value and either argue the point or spread it as though it is true. I enjoy incisive, humorous satire as much as anyone. Yet, it seems that we have come to a place in this culture of “fake news” that the boundaries between satire, “fake news,” and reality have become so fuzzy that even those who try to be discerning have a hard time telling the difference.

The buzz around President Trump’s comments about injecting disinfectants is just the prime example of the moment. Listening or reading the exchange between the reporter and the President is strange at best. They both seem to be serious but that either of them could be serious about it is incredulous. So when the criticism comes, the walk back is to claim that it was “sarcastic” (not really a synonym for what I think would be a better word choice “satire”). Even before he got into politics, Donald Trump had a reputation for a biting humor that could be insulting (“You’re Fired!”) and some have suggested that he needs to be understood that way and not always taken seriously. But as the current brouhaha reveals, discerning when something is serious and something is satire is not always easy (not just with President Trump). Some have suggested this may be an intentional strategy to put out something outrageous and then walk it back as satire to come to a place that would not have been an acceptable serious proposal but now seems more reasonable. I have no way of knowing about that, but it is interesting to consider if this is a purposeful strategy or just personality quirk.

Well, I’ve rambled on long enough with myself. I do hope this gets it out of my system so my mind can be more at rest. I do come back to this exchange between Jesus and Pilate in John 18:37-38. Jesus said, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” This echoes Jesus’ words from John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” And Jesus claim in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” I don’t intend to set this in some sort of defensive or strident religions posture, but as one who aspires to follow Jesus, I find the present difficulty in discerning truth about quite ordinary things to be daunting. I am not at all suggesting that it threatens my relationship with Jesus, only that as one who follows the one who so strongly identified himself with truth, I am struggling with how to live faithfully in this culture of “fake news” and (perhaps intentional) fuzzing the boundary between satire and reality.