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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart |
Jon Stewart Shockingly, we have discovered a hero among us. Not an action hero, a Hollywood star, a political statesman - no, it's a comedian who takes his comedy so seriously that he can treat crucial subjects and inform us to boot. Even more amazing, he doesn't always play for laughs; when given the opportunity to speak the truth to NON-fake-newsmen, he skewers them with the realities of their own hypocrisy and shortcomings. Just seeing puffed-up public figures deflated in an instant by the truths their own networks and sycophants would not dream of sharing with them, gives hope to us all. We barely believed in heros before; seeing one take on the responsibility of his power and his voice means that now we have to consider our own responsibility to speak out and claim the power of our own voice. Jon Stewart and the excellent writers of The Daily Show have also given anyone paying attention an essential piece of strategy: sometimes the truth can ONLY be delivered through comedy. While 'real' news shows refuse to check political claims against reality, it has taken a 'fake' news show to do actual research necessary to prove many of the lies politicians tell. Here's the transcript of a Daily Show clip in which the show puts quotes from George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas, up against quotes from the now-sitting-President, George W. Bush. The power of Bush's own words show either his altered beliefs (flipflop??) or his hypocrisy:The popularity of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has taught us something else: a spoonful of honey (or comedy) can make very bitter medicine go down. Even the most dedicated news junkie can only take so much of the depressing, hypocritical, asinine and juvenile actions and media that pass for 'politics' these days. When we get overwhelmed, the tendency is to turn off the news, and frankly, refuse to pay attention or understand the implications of all this horrible 'news'. It may be that the only way many of us can handle today's news is with a hefty dose of satire and comedic juxtaposition of 'reality' and 'political reality'. Thanks for showing the way, Jon. :) Bill O'Reilly Calls Viewers of 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart' A Bunch of 'Stoned Slackers' and 'Dopey Kids' During Interview With Jon Stewart on 'The O'Reilly Factor' Meanwhile the research shows that viewers of "The Daily Show" are actually smarter and more affluent than those of "The Factor." The Annennberg Public Policy Center research (released days after O'Reilly's snide comments) showed exactly the opposite of O'Reilly's assertions: 'Daily Show' viewers have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers -- even when education, party identification, following politics, watching cable news, receiving campaign information online, age, and gender are taken into consideration." O'Reilly's watchers, on the other hand, have lower education, household income, and political knowledge (see http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040930/nyth190_1.html. So who are the real slackers? |
TV,>http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/ezak28_20041028.htm">TV, Money, and Crossfire Politics - Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek analyzes why Jon Stewart points to basic truths damaging to U.S. democracy
11/03/04 00:03:31 GMT |