Funny, but Jon Stewart is a real journalist
- added May 28, 2008
- 56 responses
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- Ola_McGee
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Among Americans under age 30, Jon Stewart is tied with Bill O’Reilly as the nation’s most admired journalist. Overall, he’s No. 4.
In a March 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center, Stewart was tied with Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper. He was behind No. 1 Katie Couric, O’Reilly and Charles Gibson and ahead of Jim Lehrer, Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel, Wolf Blitzer and a slew of others.
Of course Stewart is a comedian. His “Daily Show” airs weeknights on Comedy Central.
But in an era when “real” TV newspeople often toss softball questions at political candidates (or in the case of George Stephanopoulos to Hillary Clinton in one of the televised debates, didn’t ask one he said he knew she wouldn’t want to answer!) and press sensational issues rather than policy questions, Stewart gets down to brass tacks, which is not news to anyone who watches him regularly.
On his show last night, he asked John McCain whether he’d rather run against Clinton or Barack Obama. McCain didn’t want to answer, and Stewart pressed him. It was a compelling question. No answer came, but Stewart was more dogged than any “real” anchor of late. He also pressed McCain, quite humorously, on the serious issue of how he can shake the shadow of President Bush and why that’s any different from Obama having to shake Pastor Jeremiah Wright. The point was clear: You politicians all have baggage, but you like to gloss over yours while pointing out the other guy’s. McCain was frank in distancing himself from Bush’s policies. It was a darn good news interview, and yet funny as hell at times.
Stewart also drew out the softer and more jovial side of John McCain that you rarely see on the network or cable news programs. Maybe we got a glimpse of the real John McCain last night, and since he’s running for president, that’s no laughing matter.
Anyway, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism actually studied the content of “The Daily Show” for all of 2007 in an effort to figure out why Stewart is so admired as a journalist, even though Stewart himself says he is not one.
The upshot: Stewart uses a lot of news footage from the day’s events to show contrast and contradiction (just like the other news programs) and he picks selectively among major events (just like the other news programs) and ignores a lot of what happened during the day (just like …).
The Pew analysis, out yesterday, concludes: In its choice of topics, its use of news footage to deconstruct the manipulations by public figures and its tendency toward pointed satire over playing just for laughs, “The Daily Show” performs a function that is close to journalistic in nature — getting people to think critically about the public square.
In a March 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center, Stewart was tied with Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper. He was behind No. 1 Katie Couric, O’Reilly and Charles Gibson and ahead of Jim Lehrer, Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel, Wolf Blitzer and a slew of others.
Of course Stewart is a comedian. His “Daily Show” airs weeknights on Comedy Central.
But in an era when “real” TV newspeople often toss softball questions at political candidates (or in the case of George Stephanopoulos to Hillary Clinton in one of the televised debates, didn’t ask one he said he knew she wouldn’t want to answer!) and press sensational issues rather than policy questions, Stewart gets down to brass tacks, which is not news to anyone who watches him regularly.
On his show last night, he asked John McCain whether he’d rather run against Clinton or Barack Obama. McCain didn’t want to answer, and Stewart pressed him. It was a compelling question. No answer came, but Stewart was more dogged than any “real” anchor of late. He also pressed McCain, quite humorously, on the serious issue of how he can shake the shadow of President Bush and why that’s any different from Obama having to shake Pastor Jeremiah Wright. The point was clear: You politicians all have baggage, but you like to gloss over yours while pointing out the other guy’s. McCain was frank in distancing himself from Bush’s policies. It was a darn good news interview, and yet funny as hell at times.
Stewart also drew out the softer and more jovial side of John McCain that you rarely see on the network or cable news programs. Maybe we got a glimpse of the real John McCain last night, and since he’s running for president, that’s no laughing matter.
Anyway, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism actually studied the content of “The Daily Show” for all of 2007 in an effort to figure out why Stewart is so admired as a journalist, even though Stewart himself says he is not one.
The upshot: Stewart uses a lot of news footage from the day’s events to show contrast and contradiction (just like the other news programs) and he picks selectively among major events (just like the other news programs) and ignores a lot of what happened during the day (just like …).
The Pew analysis, out yesterday, concludes: In its choice of topics, its use of news footage to deconstruct the manipulations by public figures and its tendency toward pointed satire over playing just for laughs, “The Daily Show” performs a function that is close to journalistic in nature — getting people to think critically about the public square.
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Jon Stewart is the BEST! He may be a comedian, but he does get to the real nitty gritty much better than any of those so-called "real" journalists... Besides, he has the best facial expressions of anyone on TV =)
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He's amazingly smart and has more courage then all the rest put together. I wish He did the six o'clock news, only his way. Maybe people wouldn't be so uninformed.
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- Marilynn_Murray
- 4 months ago
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He's good, Keith Olbermann is better!
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Jon has boldly tackled issues that most of the MSM just dance around. Go Jon!
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Say what you will about journalism, any list where Couric is at the top and O'Reilly isn't far behind reflects far more on the viewers.
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- kafkaesque
- 4 months ago
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The fact that anyone considers Bill O'Reilly a journalist is sad.
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Jon Stewart continues to refer to himself as a fake journalist. It's a freedom no "real" major media journalist can enjoy.
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Most American's don't know what real news is. Check out the CBC, The Globe and Mail or the BBC.
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- SameSecretDifferent
- 4 months ago
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Jon Stewart is my boy. He is one of those guys that he will die one day and people will be very sad and kids will be like "why was that guy so important?" and it will be difficult to explain.
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The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are where I get my giggles and my news for the day. The interviews are fascinating, even when they are of people who I wouldn't ordinarily be interested in, and the jokes are spot-on. They are the true kings of late night, not Conan or Leno.
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It's always the jester who can speak truth to power. It shouldn't be any surprise that a comedian can do good journalism- what is surprising is that plenty of journalism today is laughably poor.
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we live in a world that only within the guidelines of comedy can people pose any real questions or portray truth in all its harshness. It will come to represent our culture at this time that the only relevant truth spoken in the media is that in comedy or animation. Think about it...
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Stewart may be a comedian, but he has what most Journalist don't - INTEGRITY!
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- VoyagerFilms
- 4 months ago
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BBC is good. CBC not so good. Way too biased.
Way to go Jon Stewart. The show needs Colbert back though! -
It's not only ironic, but a keen insight into the state of news media, that the The Daily Show has become more credible then most broadcast news outlets.
It's interesting that the Pew Center would denote Jon as a journalist. It's a common misconception that the person reading your evening news, the pundit, the or the political analyst, is a professional journalist in the accredited sense.
For instance, George Stephanopoulos is not a journalist. He may report on the news of the day, and levy his opinions, but there is a clear delineation between a journalist and a news anchor/reporter.
Please refer to the Society of Professional Journalists for the Code of Ethics.
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
I'll choose the Daily Show over any network news show to give me the best rundown of the days news. The writers are simply some of the best out there. -
I went to see a live taping of the Daily Show once. It was awesome.
It was right after they changed the original set. And me and John had a quick discussion about what had happened to the couch on the old original set.
He said "We tried calling you to find out what to do with it, but you didnt answer your phone".
lol.
It was friggin sweet.-
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- chillwillNJ
- 4 months ago
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As well, it can be found (there was a 6-month study on it) that those who watch the Daily Show end up more "up" on current events. This is because Stewart's method ties humor to news, and therefore it gives people an emotion to tie the news to.
The point of satire is to point out the truth. Something is funniest when it's true, and, well, Jon Stewart is pretty damn funny.-
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- Adumbration
- 4 months ago
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Jon Stewart is amazing. Sometimes, when he's interviewed by other people though, he's more serious. He went on a CNN Cross Fire (whatever it was called) and criticized the anchors as actors. Rumors has it that it was canceled soon after Stewart's appearance. Not only is he very funny, but extremely intelligent. Same with Colbert who is a pro (?) satirist. :D thumbs up for the both of them.
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Jon and Stephen are simply awesome.
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It's actually a measure of how far the standards in journalism have fallen that a comedian that fakes the news is as good as the journalist themselves.
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Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are geniuses at exposing the weakness of our mainstream news sources being profit driven and run by corporate conglomerates.
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Argon, is Bill O'Reilly a journalist to you?
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- Julie_Soller
- 4 months ago
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"Laughter is the best medicine, " so it's only natural that people want a dose of that with their depressing news...
There are some really good comments here...hard acts to follow...but I agree, if Couric and O'Reilly are at the top of the heap, then I question the judgement of the spineless spin-judges...
Three thumbs WAY up for Jon and Steven...-
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- PlatoTacius
- 4 months ago
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No, Bill is a commentator that people mistake for a journalist. He pretends to be one.
Jon Stewart is a comedian and doesn't even try to pretend to be a journalist. He repeatedly denies that people should look to his show for news.
That Jon is mistaken for one only points out how much the people that supposed to be journalists are failing at their jobs -
Mainstream journalism is despicable because it has to make a profit and it assumes that people would rather watch a baby bear falling asleep than coverage of another major disaster in Asia, which is probably true for a good chunk of Americans. But it seems there is room for a very factual, high-tech, information-laden approach to world events. Maybe Current will step up and start a 24hr news channel that blows all the other dipshit-based news programming away.
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daily show is the #1 fake news show...
taking no credit as a journalist.
the point is they do it on accident.
that the mainstream media is so watered down, you don't question anything. Blindly accepting what is spoon fed to you.
The daily show questions the blatant contradictions of the mainstream...
which is what a comedian does, and what a journalist should do. Instead of manipulating the facts into a bland unquestionable statement of "sort of truths"
at argon:
as opposed to how much journalism has fallen, comedy has risen. -
Yep. I agree. ^^^
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- Julie_Soller
- 4 months ago
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The whole point of The Daily Show,to me is that if you
are not well informed to begin with, you will not get the jokes on the show. If you just watch TV News, you are
not getting the entire story ! -
Bill O'Reilly = Lewis Prothero
End of Story.-
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- expression
- 4 months ago
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reminds me of a saying.. but i forgot how it goes...
"Wit is educated insolence."
-Aristotle
*shrugs* just a thought...
imma go watch me some daily show. -
Stewart is the man! I'll take his "fake" news over "faux" news any day. And, while Jon is intelligent, witty and courageous, I think Stephen might hold the title for the most courageous act. Here's the classic from the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner.
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"tied with Bill O’Reilly" ? what are you kidding? everybody klnows what an ass hat O'reilly is, Jon Stewart at least injects a little humor & truth in his reporting.
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- Enjoy_Cannabis
- 4 months ago
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He does have more credibility than most of the MSNBC anchors. They're so far up Obama's butt I can't stand watching MSNBC anymore.
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If you guys haven't already, you should watch the Robert Kennedy Jr. clips that were posted elsewhere on current. He provides some nice historical color on the evolution of mass media "news" - I am embarrassed not to have really thought about it in his terms before yesterday.
But it gets right to shbhanda's comment about people prefering to watch a baby bear ... most people WOULD rather watch that, even though it is not NEWS, it is a STORY, and the networks are no longer required by law (as they once were) to present actual multi-perspective NEWS to their viewers.
Anything goes these days, so baby bears and any other "quick distraction" story that appeals to the heart rather than an ongoing segment that probes into a "real issue" that appeals to the mind simply equate to higher profits.
It is a fixable problem - either through new legislation that does it top-down or a new business model (hello Current) that does it bottom-up. Here's hoping ... -
Jon takes important issues and makes them easier for those who don't follow the issues to understand and at the same time being funny. Great formula
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He says he's not journalist because it avoids him being compared or him being called out for not doing a good journalistic job. By saying you're not something while everyone is treating you like you are is like stating you are not a good guy while everyone else is saying yes you are.
If the good guy says I'm a good guy then the appeal of calling him a good guy wares off and you want to say, how cocky of you, you're not a good guy shut up.
Jon Stewart is a smart, cunning and ingeniously witty man. He does things that I think are good. Pointing out hypocrisy and inconsistency is what I love to do.
Jon is a great unjournalist. -
Jon Stewart is both funny and sad. He puts a 'funny' spin on the 'sad' spinning of mainstream media. He shows how they all use the same spin on the same day. I guess that's why they are no longer journalists, they are just 'talking heads'!
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Jon Stewart on the now defunct Crossfire taking them to task about this very issue. Fun to watch.
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What's really cool is that mainstream news is actually now trying to do what The Daily Show does (because they've known this for a while) and The Daily Show is a parody of real news.
Life mimics art, I guess.
