Wes: I’m copying this link and encouraging you readers to check it out. John Hodgeman was on The Daily Show last night, discussing the ongoing mergers between big corporations and the media’s strange optimism about such mergers despite the fact that they always turn out bad for the people.

While presented in a humorous format, this piece exposes how big corporations are purosefully becoming “too big to fail” by merging with each other, and the media is not only going along with it but supporting it and, as usual, attempting to mold our perceptions of what is actually going on. It seems increasingly that the television shows of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are being used for truth and exposure; again, in a humurous way per the format of their shows. (You may remember Stephen Colbert’s humorous exposure of the PAC and SuperPAC laws.)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-february-27-2013/merge-overkill—greeb-is-good?xrs=share_copy

Here’s a quick summary of Hodgeman’s segment (you are still encouraged to check the video out):

“The episode began with Jon Stewart discussing the United States’ fragile economy.  To illustrate the dire straights we are in he showed clips from the news.  Instead of casting down doom and gloom, the reporters were jubilant over the new merger mania.  A number of large companies, including Office Depot and Office Max, and Budweiser and Corona, are merging.  He followed this news with a clip of a pundit saying in the past there have been similar booms and it has not been good for the economy.  Stewart asks why are people so excited if the past shows that this is a bad thing.

John Hodgeman interrupts him as he walks on stage.  Hodgeman starts giving the famous speech from Wall Street with the word “greed” replaced by “greeb.”  When Stewart corrects him, Hodgeman informs him that since the wealthy are at their wealthiest, they need a new word for when someone has everything they want and still want more.  Stewart asks why reporters are so excited about the mergers and Hodgeman says they are like weddings.  They are two big companies joining together to become too big to fail (TBTF), the rich person’s YOLO.  Things like this, Hodgeman said, are only irresponsible when normal people do them.”

Thanks to The Celebrity Cafe.