Conspiracies and Comedians: How the Former Administration’s Concept of “Fake News” Stabbed Them in the Back
My iPhone recently started doing that thing where it tells me it’s time to get a new one. I’m convinced Apple engineers their products so you have to go into the store and ask them to fix it, only for them to suggest, “turning it on and off” or “putting it in rice” before they sell you their latest model. Oh, the wonders of capitalism. When my phone gets too hot or too cold the battery completely drains, and I have to shut it down for at least five minutes to give it a kickstart. iPhones kind of work like grandparents in that sense.
Now, what do grandparents have to do with politics? I’m not sure, but somehow we keep electing them to be president. The best way to describe US politics is like going to the beach in Florida. An eight-year-old girl is protecting her sandcastle while her four-year-old brother runs and smashes it. There’s a group of mothers gossiping about the new neighbors. There’s some fathers not watching their kids. There’s a bunch of teenagers taking selfies. And, of course, there’s an old man whose spray tan is washing off as he takes a bath in the water. It may not seem like it, but this old man runs the beach. All of these people—the kids, the mothers, the fathers, the teenagers—find themselves looking at him. No matter how much they want to look away, they can’t. The longer the old man stays in the water, the worse it seems to get. That’s United States politics.
The administration that resided in the White House from January 2017 to January 2021—which I’ll refer to as the “Former Administration”—fed off this Floridian beach-esque attention. They lived by the idea that all publicity is good publicity; it was their religion. The Former Administration used those gawkers at the beach to fuel the news circuit during their time in office, thus coining the term “fake news.”
Before the Former Administration even took office, they threw around this term in the press circuit. Fake news originally meant a piece of information was “disingenuine” or “false” (or any other adjective synonymous to untrue) until the Former Administration began using it. They used it to describe “any news they simply didn’t like.” Any news that was considered “fake” was spun by the Former Administration to seem as though it was in their favor. Previous administrations implored message discipline, where everyone speaks, “the same carefully chosen phrases and arguments over and over in an endlessly numbing drone in order to pound their ideas through the skulls of the electorate.” But for the Former Administration, message discipline didn’t work, due to the President’s ever-present “erratic and self-contradictory” speeches and press releases. While the concept of fake news dangerously diffused among the Former Administration’s acolytes, it led to the prompt (albeit wildly immature) revival of conspiracies among the American public.
These conspiracies the Former Administration started included “CrowdStrike, Ted Cruz and the JFK assassination, windmills, voter fraud, fake terrorist attacks,” and many more. While the administration’s devoted followers believed these innately false (and harmful) conspiracies, a majority of the public knew them to be untrue. This managed to keep them relevant in the media, however with their inability to follow message discipline—in addition to their ubiquitous use of fake news—they couldn’t keep their routine up for much longer. Their press tactics came back to stab them in the back.
One of my (and millions of others’) favorite weekend entertainments is the sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). Back in February 2020 (right before the world fell apart), stand-up comedian John Mulaney hosted the acclaimed late-night television show. Each week, the host opens the show with a monologue. Typically the writing staff is tasked with crafting the monologue, but Mulaney, a former writer for the show and well-seasoned stand-up, wrote a brief stand-up routine for his monologue. He covered several topics in this monologue (including Baby Boomer fathers, Jesus’ magic tricks, and leap year), but one joke in particular stood out.
2020 was a leap year, and Mulaney hosted SNL on the last Saturday in February, which happened to be leap day. In his monologue, Mulaney jokes that he is there “to promote the month of March.” He shares that “leap year was started in the year 45 B.C. by Julius Caesar” to correct the calendar. Mulaney then goes on to mention another thing Julius Caesar is known for: the Ides of March. For those of you unfamiliar with this, the Ides of March was when a bunch of senators stabbed Julius Caesar (a known dictator, or as Mulaney says, “a powerful maniac”) to death. Mulaney, a comedian, joked that it “would be an interesting thing if we brought that back.”
So, what does a stand-up comedian’s SNL monologue have to with the Former Administration?
Well, Mulaney’s joke about Julius Caesar getting stabbed to death on the Ides of March happened to catch the eye of none other than the Former Administration. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel back in December 2020, the comedian revealed that the Secret Service investigated him as a result of his joke, which he firmly stated “was not about” the Former Administration. (Mulaney also realizes, as he is explaining the situation to Kimmel, that he retells the joke, which is infinitely hilarious.) Mulaney shares that the Secret Service “opened a file” on him “because of the joke.” It was concluded by the Secret Service “that Mulaney made no direct threats towards” the Former Administration…obviously.
Now, it’s incredibly foolish to investigate a comedian over a joke. Especially considering that he was just doing his job, considering his job is to tell jokes.
But, given the way the Former Administration operated, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Their inability to use message discipline led them down a rabbit hole of fake news and conspiracy theories, which, more often than not, were started by themselves. Their way of staying in the press came back to (pardon my French) bite them in the ass. The Former Administration’s necessity to control the news media circuit made them hyper-aware of everything that could potentially be used against them. Even harmless jokes. They were so paranoid they felt it was necessary to investigate a stand-up who knows he looks more like a “tall child” than a 38-year-old man.
It’s incredibly foolish to believe that Mulaney—a comedian who “you could pour soup in his lap and apologize to you”—was plotting (or knew about) senators plotting to stab a “dictator” in 2020. The Former Administration’s paranoia regarding conspiracies stems from the news circuit they worked so hard to alter to cater to them, entirely disregarding how it would affect the lives of the audience (and the journalists). They used their own outlandish philosophy on themselves, sparking a conspiracy amongst none other than their own administration. Not only is it incredibly silly, but it’s also humiliating.
There is a certain precedent to follow when dealing with the news media, specifically when it relates to people in a position of power. The Former Administration did not follow this precedent, and therefore ended up making a mockery of themselves based on their ideas of fake news and conspiracies. Many journalists value journalistic integrity; the Former Administration denied journalists this right, and therefore created a web of lies that was diffused amongst themselves and the American people. News should be there to inform the greater population, not to support or favor one singular identity. Especially one who has caused significant harm to the nation.
Mulaney did have a point though.
Written by: Annaliese Baker, 17 years old
