At heart, The Simpsons has always been part media satire. Usually the show would point its satirical lens at television as its medium of choice. The series, simply by existing, took the stuffing out of more typical sitcoms where families were nicer (not to mention richer), and most problems could be solved in an easy and heart-warming fashion. But as I discussed on The Simpsons Show Podcast, the show reserved just as much comic ire for the tired antics of Krusty the Clown, the ultraviolence of Itchy & Scratchy and, of course, the sensationalizing dispatches from Channel 6 news anchor, Kent Brockman.
So it’s natural that The Simpsons would eventually take aim at the broader media landscape, questioning who might take the reins of our sources of information and decide what kind of self-serving spin to add. It’s just as natural for the show to explore the counterreaction to that — the lone voices in the wilderness forging a real connection and trying to be heard above the din. And it’s the peak of both approaches to personify the former in the guise of Mr. Burns and the latter as li’l Lisa Simpson.
