IMNSHO, this man is a patriot and American Hero, and is the best journalist on the air today.
Would you believe the answer is neither?
Julia R. Fox, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University isn’t joking when she says the popular “fake news” program, which last week featured Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a guest, is just as substantive as network coverage.
While much has been written in the media about The Daily Show’s impact, Fox’s study is the first scholarly effort to systematically examine how the comedy program compares to traditional television news as sources of political information.
The fact that a comedian is the best journalist in America is a sad testament to the quality of our news.
#10…AB CD….yep…hard to call him a journalist…..because he ISN’T a journalist. He just plays one on t.v.
I like Jon Stewart….I don’t watch him much, but I always enjoy the show when I do….Colbert on the other I don’t like at all.
The problem is….that like some people in here, many people who watch The Daily Show….believe he is a journalist and take a lot of the ad-lib/funny stuff as the truth.(the funny stuff thats not true)….lol
Thanks Mr. Fusion….you managed to get a dig in here about Fox News.
@30: You know that’s Colbert’s whole act right?
Colbert is the “O’Reilly” of the Stewart/Colbert duo – his character (and he plays it well) is supposed to be a hard right, lunatic fringe journalist in the style of Fox News, who ignores logic and truth (or ‘truthiness’, as he calls it) because it’s outside the accepted ‘right’ way of thinking.
Asking Franken why he ‘hates the troops’ is a mockery of the fanatical American right wing (who seem to run your country these days) – the kind of people who actually ask others why they ‘hate the troops’ and do so with a straight face.
It’s all an act.
Colbert is no Republican, and he’s no Libertarian… he’s probably every bit as liberal as Stewart (probably more so, which is why Stewart has such a hard time keeping a straight face when Colbert is ‘on’).
The IU press release makes sense in an egg-head sort of way, that being, get the facts right, present supporting evidence, reach a stuffy condescending conclusion while missing the whole point by a mile.
People aren’t getting their news from The Daily Show and Colbert, they are getting their laughs there. Some of those people follow world events covered by various media sources and understand the humor, others are in it for the fart jokes.
Only because the quality of their work is so high and CNN and the Network’s product (and maybe college level research) has become so dumbed down, can a reach be attempted on a comparison of substance. JS and Colbert do make their product more “substantive” comedy by being creatively clever, finding the irony, hypocrisy, stupidity in current events or just being talented goofs. On the other hand, when Boston Public starts spoofing CNN prime time, with a Nancy Grace parody, that’s a strong sign there’s something wrong in the news room. Maybe a stronger argument could be made that “news rooms” aren’t as good a place to find information that has passed through high quality thought filters as those at Comedy Central. But, it’s not really a “news” room now. It’s more of an ICU for producers and talking heads infected with the Entertainment Tonight Virus.
Yet this comedy show has won a couple of Peabody awards for political coverage. Go figure.
I say again, that a comedian is the best TV journalist in America (IMNSHO) says volumes about the quality of our broadcast news.
The problem is….that like some people in here, many people who watch The Daily Show….believe he is a journalist and take a lot of the ad-lib/funny stuff as the truth.
IMO what’s scary is that the same thing applies to those who are fans of Limbaugh and his ilk. (like that, Smartalix?)
Ballenger’s comments are dead-on…some of the “news” on the “news networks” is so damned stupid that it needs commentary like Jon provides. Much of the nonsense happening in Washington REQUIRES this honest viewpoint, because some of those pols are so absurd and so many people buy it. I have Repub friends who hate Jon, IMO because he hits much closer to the truth than the Repub spin machine. But when he lambastes Dems the friends don’t seem to mind. Go figure.
Those of us who were Baby Boomers may remember That Was The Week That Was, a news satire that was better than anything the network news departments were puttintg out at the time. Tom Lehrer was ghost writing the satirical songs that were a feature each week–just found that out.
It’s impossible to fit either Colbert or Stewart into a set mold, they both tend to spread through multiple levels, and Colbert is from South Carolina, and that’s just unbelievably cool in and of itself. But contemporary politics has become such a dreadful morass of connivance, greed and nasty deeds that the only way to deal with it is either through humour or revolution, and we are too comfortable in our respective hog wallows to revolt – yet.
But it’s not just on TV, political commentary is spreading across the funny papers. In addition to Zonker, there is Mallard Filmore, Shoe and even Hagar The Horrible slips a political zinger in there every once in a while. After all, with so much raw materiel, why shouldn’t this abundant national resource be mined?
Opinions are like belly buttons, most everybody has one or two, and in my opinion the funnies are the only part of the newspaper fit to read (unless you need a job) and Stewart and Colbert the only two “newscasts” worth watching.
Stewart is doing the one thing no newscast (national or local) is doing these days: Highlighting a story every show that took days to research and produce.
Now, there’s a reason TDC does this: It’s too hard to generate multiple comedy segements in a single day beyond a monologue, so they have multiple writers working on these stories for days.
What happens because of this is some actual thought is put into the packages, and a “point” is developed for each story. Meanwhile, when you watch an equivalent story on another newscast, you’re watching the product of an assignment given to a reporter (who may have one producer) only hours prior.
Is he liberal? Yes, and so what? Unlike most liberals he knows both sides are full of shit, and treats both equally.
Are we so political these days we have to label everyone? Does it always have to be us against them? I never thought of Stewart and Colbert is liberal or conservative. I just thought of them as being anti-stupid. Colbert’s constant use of the terms “cut and run” and “hate our troops” is hysterical and destroys the lack of thinking that goes behind each of those phrases. Colbert’s better know a district segments are probably the funniest things on television. They are so good not one politician wants to come on them.
I think Stewart likes good Republicans and good Democrats. It is clear that he likes both McCain and Bill Clinton. Stewart actually reads the books of his guests before they come on the show. He seems a lot more intelligent than most of the eye candy news reporters, and his questions are great. His question of the Pakistani President about who would win an election in Pakistan between Bush and Bin Laden was great. As was the president’s answer, “Both would lose”. Doesn’t that one answer tell you how screwed up relations are between us and our “friends” in Pakistan?
Why is there a picture of that monkey on my monitor? Is this the great ape house?
Dylan Neild –
Well, I also remember when he had a very dynamic Catholic speaker on one night (sorry, I can’t recall the name). Colbert appeared to know the man personally. He basically fawned over him and it was not an act but obvious admiration.
That doesn’t make him a Republican, of course. But if Stephen likes this man, there is no way he is a liberal Democrat. I agree that he is most likely a Libertarian. That must be why I like him so much. He points out the lunacy on both sides but still leans to the right.
The whole “truthiness” Colbert may be an act but it is a class act that is peppered with his core beliefs.
>treats both equally.
I really doubt George Bush would have gotten the fawning interview that Kerry got.
#42. No doubt Jon would have been polite – he was even nice to Pat Buchannan last week.
On the editorial front, the Daily Show treats Democrats generally as bumbling losers with no ideas, but the Republicans as evil hypocrites.
The most hilarous bit in the last few weeks was an ‘interview’ with a conservative Christian type who was trying to justify the dismissal of an Army Arabic translator because he was gay. According to this guy, the gay soldier could not have been doing a good job because he would be too focused on the hot bods of his fellow troops.
And so on. Mostly, they let people hang themselves, rather than do it for them.
One reason I like Stewart is that I agree with this completely.
#44. Political parties generally have some time in the wilderness. Between Hoover and Goldwater, the GOP was the, “Like the Democrats but less so” party. The Dems are going through that stage now. Shorn of the Southern White Male vote and with their only two-term President proclaiming “the era of Big Government is over,” and placing them on the side of Free Trade, they have spent a couple decades trying to figure what they are besides Not Republicans.
I think they are still working on it.
The GOP is going to move back towards its Nixon, George HW, Colin Powell, James Baker realistic foreign policy with the next candidate and away from the “It Will Be OK, Jesus is Coming Soon” wing.
Which will be a relief.
#44…Smartalix…I agree with you as well….except may not the *evil* part….just the hypocrites part. 🙂
#45….Doug…..couldn’t have said it better…..I think you got it right.
isn’t hypocrisy a kind of evil?
;-D
I just stopped watching the show after many years. Steward is loosing his comedy edge and I think it is because he is starting to believe this press bullshit about him being a serious journalist. Too bad. His real value was showing both the right and the left the absurdity and hypocrisy of it all. Nothing is more unfunny than somebody trying to push their own political agenda.
You must not have seen last night’s episode, then. It was brilliant.
#42. No doubt Jon would have been polite – he was even nice to Pat Buchannan last week.
Even though I disagree with most of his stance, I have a very high regard for Pat Buchannan. He is intelligent, articulate, well spoken, well connected, and considerate. Attributes hard to find in most Republicans today.
I thought it was funny that Buchanan had to apologize for Lawrence O’Donnell’s yelling at John O’Neill of the Swift Boat vets.