Comedy | January 10, 2010 | 49 comments

Brian Williams: Why Jon Stewart Is Good For News

source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2

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atomiclegion
Many journalists have come to think of the comedian (above) as a kind of external standards-and-practices cop — and one whose nightstick leaves painfully embarrassing welts, says NBC anchor Brian Williams. He explains why no journalist wants to show up on The Daily Show unless he's got a book to promote.

For decades, young reporters would ask themselves, "What would Walter think?" Nowadays, it's not the memory of Walter Cronkite or even Edward R. Murrow that motivates some reporters — it's more often the fear that the stories they put out today might get picked apart by Jon Stewart tomorrow.

Prominent among the wary: NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who recently explained in a magazine essay that The Daily Show host "has gone from optional to indispensable" in just a few short years.

And Williams tells NPR's Guy Raz that on occasion, when he feels his broadcast tap-dancing toward the precipice — tossing around a story idea for "what I call Margaret Mead journalism — where we 'discover Twitter,' " for instance, or entertaining some other unfortunate editorial possibility — "I will, and have, said that, 'You know, maybe we can just give a heads-up to Jon to set aside some time for that tonight.'

"I should quickly add, we have another set of standards we put our stories through," Williams cautions. "But Jon's always in the back of my mind. ... When you make The Daily Show, it's usually not for a laurel, it's for a dart."



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2
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49 comments // Brian Williams: Why Jon Stewart Is Good For News

  • EdJoyProductions
  • Future_America
  • calm_incense
  • dalistuff
    • 0
      dalistuff  

    • News is comical by the way and who presents it as it is comical or funny to make fun of it , whether u agree upon it doesn't matter. All players MAKE money off themselves. Everything is a scam. BTW that little comic is funny sometimes.

    • 2 years ago
  • calm_incense
  • Mudboy16
  • hack26
  • EdJoyProductions
  • hack26
  • EdJoyProductions
  • Argon18
  • hack26
  • EdJoyProductions
  • Minus5scenePoints
    • 0
      Minus5scenePoints  

    • I'm kinda getting that more and more people that're in their 20's to 30's go more to Mr. Stewart for the news score then most major news channels.
      And if you were to TELL this to Jon Stewart, he'd laugh and say their not real news. Modest! And great.

    • 2 years ago
  • calm_incense
    • 0
      calm_incense  

    • The Daily Show is overrated. Jon Stewart is overrated.

      There is much better journalism out there.

      Certainly not as funny, but much more relevant.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • calm_incense
    • 0
      calm_incense  
    • calm_incense:

      The problem is, people think it *is* journalism. So they stop at the Daily Show and don't bother to look any further. They think that what's talked about on the Daily Show is all that's relevant in the world, when really the Daily Show only talks about what's popular (that is, of course, the secret to its ratings, and the same applies to every other major American news network out there—they all treat the world as a circus playground in which the American partisan game plays out like a self-indulgent soap-opera). You'd think nothing else was going on in the world that doesn't in some way relate to America. Improvement of Indian-Bengali relations? Who'd have thought it was even a topic? Chile being accepted into the OECD? But...but what does that have to do with America!?

      Jon Stewart isn't lying when he says The Daily Show prioritizes entertainment over education.

    • 2 years ago
  • MOK
    • 0
      MOK  
    • calm_incense:

      You're misunderstanding:
      The people who watch The Daily Show 'as news' don't watch the news. Time spent watching that program does not replace time they'd spend with a newspaper or CNN, etc. To them, the Daily Show is effectively just an entertainment program, with a current events flavor - Entertainment is the reason they watch, not the current events. If there were no Daily Show, these people would instead be watching puppets making crank calls, not a news anchor or investigative journalist. Either way, they wouldn't watch/read news.

      Therefore, The Daily Show is not detracting from the literacy of our populace, as you seem to insinuate.

    • 2 years ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  

    • we love our dirty laundry and jon gives it with skid marks. the american relationship to celeberity is one of attack. once we get someone up on the pedestal, we criticize every thing

    • 2 years ago
  • masterzip
    • 0
      masterzip  

    • HA!!!!
      "it's more often the fear that the stories they put out today might get picked apart by Jon Stewart tomorrow."
      so,...we are to believe the reporters live in fear, because their lies they tell may be exposed.....I can only see that as a positive and may encourage reporters to report on something where they can stand behind their words. Right now, many reporters are just as much a loose cannon as the person they have on their shows as guest speakers,..those words and reports have consequences,..the consequences now are being called out by JS

    • 2 years ago
  • maasanova
    • 0
      maasanova  

    • John Stewart is great and I used to watch the Daily Show from time to time when I watched tv, but often when he covers extremely serious stories, the end result seems to be "just laugh it off" and then no one gets mad about it. This was the case when Kramer from Mad Money was busted for financial shennanigans and Congresswoman Jane Harman's AIPAC spy scandal.

      A good rule of thumb is that real truth-tellers aren't on TV. If someone appears on TV you can safely assume that they or the networks that they appear on are controlled or motivated by money/advertising/contracts ect.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • maasanova:

      Amy Goodman is a truth-teller.

      Democracy Now! is aired by more than 700 radio, television, satellite and cable TV networks in North America.

      Democracy Now! is the flagship national program of the Pacifica Radio network on which it airs. It also airs on some NPR and community radio stations, as well as a few commercial stations (mostly those with a progressive talk radio format). The television simulcast airs on public access cable television stations; on satellite via Free Speech TV (channel 9415 on DISH Network) and Link TV (channel 375 on DirecTV, channel 9410 on DISH Network), and free-to-air on C Band.[9] Democracy Now! is available over the Internet, as both streaming audio and video, and as a podcast and torrent

      -Wikipedia

    • 2 years ago
  • BFAM_RVS
    • 0
      BFAM_RVS  

    • Its good to have the truth in the news.....so often, the truth is lost or covered up or mixed with so much crap and Jon Stewart is a glimpse of the truth amongst all the bullshit....

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  

    • NBC is owned by one of the largest corporations in the world, GE. Brian Williams is a corporate mouthpiece and we should care what he says why?

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • samthesixth:

      I fully agree, Williams is a prick and a shitty journalist, though I admit he is somewhat quick-witted.
      He was also complicit in advancing FBI propaganda with respect to the botched anthrax investigation citing only unnamed sources which he refuses to reveal to this day.

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
  • Argon18
  • bansheewail
    • 0
      bansheewail  

    • Don't take anything away from Jon Stewart, the interviewer. His jouralistic integrity is better than that of most of the network talking heads. His interview with that big mouth, Jim Cramer from "Mad Money" was poetry within a ballet. he get's it right, covers the facts, asks the hard questions and makes it all hilarious. Pure Genius!

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • EdJoyProductions
  • smallgod
    • 0
      smallgod  

    • I like the Daily Show, but I've been a little disappointed with his lighter critique of President Obama after his promise that he would be equally harsh with him as he had been with W Bush. Also, I sort of wish the Daily Show would skip out on interviews with actors (maybe stock that filler time with more news?) because when he has those folks on, nothing against actors' opinions or whatever, that's where the show ends for me.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • smallgod:

      I have to agree he is softer on Obama. Then again, Congressional Republicans with their cute antics certainly keep him busy with their bizarre histrionics, birthering and death panelling, etc.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • frank_runyeon
    • 0
      frank_runyeon  

    • What's fascinating is that the idea of a truth-telling comedian is not new at all!

      The court jester (or fool) served the exact same purpose for the king.

      He was the only one who could speak truth to power and get away with it! It was his job to mix among the down and dirty population and lampoon those outrageously taboo topics for the court. Heck, Queen Elizabeth "rebuked her fool" for not being severe enough with her!

      Jon Stewart is the COURT JESTER OF AMERICA!

      Check it out:
      http://www.rsc.org.uk/lear/teachers/fool.html

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  

    • I really like Jon Stewart, but there is something I don't get. Why is it so hard for a major news organization to do in some of the most important stories, what Stewart and his people do every night on the television? And to add insult to injury, Stewart doesn't research the news and make fun of it to "report news", he does it to make fun of the news.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      What has also crippled the media is the exchange by news agency of access for favorable reporting, regardless who is in office. Helen Thomas and a scant few others excepted.
      As Amy Goodman calls it, "The Access of Evil".

    • 2 years ago
  • CaliCritic
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  

    • The tragedy is that it takes Jon Stewart to set a standard and that the journalist can't do the reseach, fact checking and editing themselves.

    • 2 years ago
  • EdJoyProductions
  • SleepDirt
  • EdJoyProductions
  • MOK
    • 0
      MOK  
    • EdJoyProductions:

      I disagree, regarding the Colbert Report. I feel it's a bit of a different animal.
      I'd describe how, but I'm having trouble finding the words to describe this perceived difference...
      Oh well.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  

    • Jon Stewart is funny and sad. He points out the 'sad' humor, of modern day politics and media. Politics and media should not be 'held accountable' by 'comedy central and Jon Stewart'. Unfortunately only a comedian has the courage to take them both to task. Kudos to Jon Stewart and Comedy Central.

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
    • 0
      ryan8566  
    • Conniepae:

      and to Brian Williams for reminding us of this. those of us who have had the chance to see Williams in interviews, and appearances, etc. know he is both smart and funny.

    • 2 years ago
  • idealist
  • hack26
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