‘Ha-ha! Your medium is dying!’ — ‘Simpsons’ critiques newspapers, elections

“The Simpsons” lambasted “primary fever” with a rebellion by Springfield’s citizenry in last night’s episode [a rerun from Jan. 6]: In the town’s first-in-the-nation presidential (municipal?) primary, voters cast write-in votes for a protest candidate, the police chief’s daft kid, Ralphie Wiggum. With slams abounding — a charge of stolen ballot boxes in Ohio by George W. Bush supporters, jabs at Arianna Huffington (“Adriatica Viljohnson”) and Fred (“I was in ‘Die Hard!’”) Thompson, plus guest appearances by Jon Stewart and Dan Rather — the cartoon offered a prognosis for the newspaper industry, too.

As a media panel gathered, Rather’s character introduces representatives from CNN and Slate.com, before disdainfully welcoming “Ron LaHar, a print journalist from the Washington Post,” to which class bully Nelson pipes in with his taunting laugh:

“Ha-ha, your medium is dying!”

“E. Pluribus Wiggum,” originally aired Jan. 6, 2008