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| Exit, Stage Tears |
In Europe right now, there's a growing movement behind establishing a new human right. The idea is that if you have made a mistake in your life, and you have taken steps to correct it, you should have the ability to have it eventually purged from the system, particularly if the system, in this case, is Google.
Sounds like a nice thing. It's not as if we all don't have something we'd like to go down the memory hole (and no, I'm not going to make the tactical mistake of admitting mine). But there's what is nice to have and the foundations that our nation was built on, and here's a case where, well, the rights of the individual do not now, and never will, trump the needs of the many. And the needs of the many are for a free press, and a free press requires the ability to tell the truth, even (especially?) when it does harm to an individual, over the course of years. The marketplace of ideas wins out. Life is not now, and never has been, fair.
And with that basic and inalienable point made, I'm going to pivot, without much in the way of grace or transition, to Jon Stewart's exit from The Daily Show, which was broadcast as I was finishing this post.
There are many ways to discuss this. True fans might note the many heartfelt feelings expressed, the wealth of alumni who came back to say their goodbyes, or maybe even Bruce Springsteen providing the soundtrack to play the show out. People who don't share Stewart's politics will say good riddance, maybe while noting the show's comparatively low gross ratings. Business types will wonder what happens to the show now, and what happens next to the diaspora of late night television options.
For me, I wanted to note two points.
1) When I was growing up, there was a wealth of great newspaper comic strips. Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, The Far Side, Bloom County, Peanuts, Dilbert -- there was strong anticipation before the Sunday newspaper in my house, and it was something that we never missed. It seemed like there would always be newspapers, and there would always be great comic strips in those newspapers.
Well, no offense to the people who still make comic strips, or newspapers, but that era has passed, and will not return. Larry Wilmore does a fine job with the Nightly Show, but I don't know anyone who thinks it's a better product than the Colbert Report. Trevor Noah will have a great staff that will, in all likelihood, have a massive amount of fodder in the upcoming Presidential election, and incredible motivation to prove that the Daily Show can thrive in transition. There's no reason to think that, in the long term, he'll be better at the gig than Stewart, who was, in the words of Stephen Colbert, infuriatingly good at his job. Change is inevitable, but it's not always positive.
2) I know I'm not wired like most people, and especially not like show people, but seriously. If you are great at a job, and you are making serious bank at this job, and so many people appreciate what you do, how do you ever get to the point when you willingly leave it?
I get athletes wanting to go out on top. I get wanting to do other things in your life, or be more present for your family. I get not feeling as if you are still capable of excellence, and needing time away, or maybe managing your time commitment.
But to totally shut it down and give it up, with the very open question, seemingly, of what you are going to do next? Would never, ever, happen. They'd have to pry the job away from my cold, dead hands.
And this, in a nutshell, is the difference between Art and Craft, and why Marketing and Advertising is so much more of the latter. Our work in this realm has metrics that tell us when something is working, and the constant question of whether or not you can beat a control. Chasing the number doesn't make for questions about when you should hang it up. And there's never been a marketer who didn't think that their best campaign was yet to come.
So while I'll miss Stewart, I'm also more than a little annoyed with him for going. More was needed, more would have been delivered, and on some level, I would have liked Bill Watrerson more if he kept drawing Calvin and Hobbes.
While, well, never having anyone else telling us what we have to forget.
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