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Originally Posted by Typhoid
I would just like to take this time to point out that the Daily Show isn't news, but is a comedy show. 
Jon Stweart himself, even says that his show is fake, made up news.
So he wouldnt HAVE to see it to do a report on it. |
I won't talk about the Moore movie anymore, but I find the excuse that The Daily Show is a comedy act to be exactly that, an excuse.
The Daily Show does more than simply do comedy, just like Lenny Bruce did more that do stand-up. Stewart is an opinion maker, and he believes his own press.
1) Count the number of laughs that the show gets compared the the
rounds of applause. Applause doesn't indicate comedy, but rather agreement with an OPINION. If I was still in college, I would do a media analysis of his shows to see how this trend has progressed.
2) Know who else guises his agenda in comedy? Michael Moore. When he's around those that think like him, he's a muck raking journalist. When he is challenged, he suddenly is just a comedian.
3) For someone who says its all a joke, Stewart sure does like to take himself incredibly seriously. His appearance on CNN's Crossfire is a perfect example of this. While he is a comedian, he did enough damage to the show to have it cancelled by just saying that it was a bad show and blind-siding that poor bow-tied idiot Tucker Carlson. That doesn;t sound like a funny joke to me. It sounds like someone who wields an enormous amount of political power and influence over public opinion.
4) The Daily Show manipulates the news. They show clips severely out of context to form a joke with an agenda, and also tend to do so to one specific poltical party over the other. Yes, the democrats are crtiticized from time to time, but it is rare. They don't just manipulate the news for jokes, they attempt to re-write it for them, and they send messages to the polulace that reinforces ignorant opinion.
The bottom line is that The Daily Show is a comedy with an aganda, and they excuse that agends through their comedy. Its the best of both worlds. They can say whatever they want and take no responsibility for the fatc that intended or not, people take the themes and tone of their jokes seriously. Through the mask of humor, Jon Stewart and his crew can excuse themselves from any form of social and yes, even journalistic, responsibility.
That said, I still watch the show and find it hilarious when its not being overtly biased or stretching the truth.
And Bluefire, was this what you were talking about?
