you do with your career, make it matter and make it count. aaron sorkin makes it matter and makes it count. well said. the washington portrayed is far from the west wing in the 90s. the new shows are violent and machiavellian in the case of house of cards and scandal or comedic in the case of veep. so what s changed? what s changed about reality? ted johnson and alicia quarrels. thank you both for joining us. this is part fun. let me ask you, ted. a friend of mine that makes movies said years ago you can t do a movie about politics. it has to be called a thriller. but now people love house of cards. and i think a hell of a lot of people i know like newsroom and these other slows like veep are fun. are they going to vote more? do they believe nor in democracy? are they watching these for some other reason? i would say these shows are
aaron sorkin makes it matter and count. well said. the washington portrayed is far from the west wing in the 90s. the new shows are violent in the case of house of cards and scandal or comedic in the case of veep. so what s changed? what s changed about reality? ted johnson senior editor and alicia quarrels. thank you both for joining us. this is part fun. let me ask you, ted. a friend of mine that makes movies said years ago you can t do a movie about politics. it has to be called a thriller. but now people love house of cards. and i think a hell of a lot of people i know like newsroom and these other slows like veep are fun. are they going to vote more? do they believe nor in democracy? are they watching these for some
get out of here, you have written about president obama using jokes as a weapon of sorts. explain that sure, in the past, most presidents use comedy in a self-deprecating manner, can t lose, make people laugh at you, shows you are a sense of humor and secure. president obama has gone further. i looked at the past white house correspondents din and used it to educate people, entertain and eviscerate, used it on trump in 2011, three jokes about trump. made fun about matt damon, an actor, had the audacity to mark president obama a short time before that last year, did it with mitt romney saying he is rich. all these are subtle jokes, there s a message embedded in those jokes, what political comedy is, make you laugh but also, setting a narrative up that you want to further through comedy. that s what president obama does like a comedian. he is amazing at that. dana milbank, alicia quarrels, dean obeidallah. i should note that dean and alicia, you guys will be joining me for msnbc s c
by the way, not 12 hour, starts at 7:00, not 12 hours away, maybe the pregaming is justified. also conan o brien s second appearance at the so-called nerd prom. here he was touring the white house press office yesterday. his first one, back in 1995. that was right after the oklahoma city bombings. this time, of course, it s after the explosions in boston. dana milbank, political columnist washington post, alicia quarrels, red carp brett coverage for e entertainment network and dean owe bid dal la, comedian, opinion writer, all-around nice guy. thanks. good to have all of you with us. dana, let start with you. talk about the tone the president is probably going to have to take and conan o brien as well, ricin-laced letters, still on the heels of the boston bombing, investigation under way. how might it affect president obama s tone? will it? we have had this before and worse, of course, because we
jackson and named t.j. jackson in her place. he s now legally in charge of michael jackson s children. joining me now is former prosecutor turned civil attorney john kelly and alicia quarrels. new york correspondent for e! news. thank you both for being with me tonight. thank you. alicia, can you explain what happened in court today? so basically t.j. who s tito s son went and applied for temporary guardianship. now he can make all decisions for the children. who come in the house where the children live, and he also controls the $86,000 a month that katherine was getting from michael jackson s estate to take care of the kids. what basis legally could the judge have done that just on the word of t.j.? the other fact they took into consideration is katherine was missing from the household. the children returned from sleepover camp, the legal