John Stewart drilled down to the essence of the Tailgate-gate story with his usual humor and appeal to sanity. One after another of mainstream pundits were made to look like offended Sunday School teachers as they spoke of the cringeworthy AI-generated image of the President hogtied in the flatbed of an F-150.
They didn’t show the image because they decided it was too “disturbing” to show, even though, as Stewart observes, they have no qualms with bringing us footage of Gaza or Ukraine or 9-11.
I have to say it really did make the networks look pretty silly. The image was of course shown on The Daily Show, and while perhaps causing a certain discomfort, it wasn’t gory or gratuitous. Seeing it just makes one wonder why the networks made such a big deal about not showing it, and maybe aids in reinforcing the snowflake label, along with a tendency toward melodrama.
In fairness to the networks, Stewart must have been talking about the networks’ initial reaction, because the image has shown up in various media as recently as yesterday.
Anyway, the tailgate story was used as an entre into a segment on AI and the less-than-convincing arguments its adherents are offering up in its defense, specifically with regard to its effects on employment opportunities for humans. The lemonade is poured in the form of assuring us that an AI-led labor force will lead to more leisure time for us hominids, which is great if you have money with which to enjoy your leisure time—income you once had by doing a job that’s now or will be done by a robot.
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