It really is no secret that I have a great distain for American newssources who often put their ratings above any semblance of actual news reporting. The difference is so distinct that you could be watching CNN or FOX at one moment, see a story on Obama's "swagga" and switch over to PBS and watch BBC news and see a tsunami in India and pirates capturing an American ship. What is appalling is that the morning shows, the late night shows and the actual news seem to be almost the same...stupid chatter from stupid blonde smiley bobble heads. But how can comedy shows like "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" compare, despite the degradation of news sources on television?
When I was younger and my grandfather came to visit, all had to be completely silent while the news was on...even the NYSE and the S & P required complete silence. For the most part American's act like there is an invisible grandfather watching over them, they are completely silent during the news just taking in the supposed information and blindly consuming it like a burger with salmonella. But where is the interaction that Marshall McLuhan describes as "hot" media? This phenomenon is reserved for 8pm when the gambit of Comedy shows comes on, giving Americans a chance to laugh, to interact, to joke and to actually question the "news".
The greatest example of this is the story that plagues us (no pun intended) even now, the elusive and "widespread" Swine Flu. Despite the fact that CNN, MSNBC and FOX have all literally been infecting people with information about this new strain of flu, they are now taking a step back and saying...not to freak anyone out about this or (in reality) have this look like we were just putting all this stupid hype on television and making it look really scary. Jon Stewart responded to this hysteria saying, "Do you even watch your own networks? You're the only reason we ARE freaking out!". Stewart covered this phenomenon in his segment on April 27 in the section called "The Last 100 Days". "We were supposed to be talking about Obama's first one hundred days, and how it's gone. Clearly this guy" he says motioning towards the heavens, "has other plans".
Using clips from all three major news sources, Stewart creates a montage of all the ridiculous things reporters will ask their physicians, speculators, psychics, ambassadors, politicians. Really he takes the things they say, and actually analyzes them and then makes that analysis into comedy. After all, says Stewart Swine Flu is the least of your worries in Mexico, the elusive and contagious "Bullet flu" which remains "airborne" is still number one on things that can kill you in Mexico.
But how does "The Daily Show" go beyond making fun of the news and instead actually serve to educate people? For one, most people are absolutely sick of the political system and anything that serves up a high dose of reality is going to be popular. Secondly, by combining actual news stories into a format people can actually understand and "get" viewers are actually consuming more information than they would from the old guy taking about politcal dogma for 45 minutes. According to Rachel Smolkin in her article, "What Mainstream Media Can Learn From Jon Stewart", "A 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 21 percent of people age 18 to 29 cited comedy shows such as "The Daily Show" and "Saturday Night Live" as places where they regularly learned presidential campaign news, nearly equal to the 23 percent who regularly learned something from the nightly network news or from daily newspapers". There's a reason that regular newspapers are fading and newsstations are adding segments like "Bill O'Reilly" and "Keith Olbermann"...people want someone to analyze their news for them. Just another way that Americans have become lazy. We don't want someone to give us the actual facts about swine flu, we want 20 different networks feelings about it...and no we don't want to know anything about it.
In a recent interview with Paris Hilton, CNN asked her what she thought of the swine flu, she responded, "What? I don't eat those!". Withought Jon Stewart would people who consider themselves to be "non-political" also think that swine flu has something to do with Babe or Charlotte's Web? Stewart's show allows for people who are not really big on the Capitol Hill scene to see a dichotomy between American political thought and the absolute garbage that FOX and CNN spew all day on televisions nationwide. American's finally have a chance to use what Marshall McLuhan described as a "hot" media and actually interact with a source instead of letting it tell them what to do.
Why can't journalists see past their need for television ratings and wishy-washy content to have a little of Stewarts obvious sarcasm? Smolkin mentions Jeff Jarvis, a well known bloggers reaction to reporters shyness, "After enough drinks, reporters talk like Stewart: 'You won't BELIEVE what the mayor said today!' Why don't we talk to our readers that way?" he asks, and then acknowledges: "OK. There's a lot of arguments: 'The mayor won't talk to us again.' 'It's biased.' 'We don't want to turn everything into blogs.'"Perhaps journalistic integrity and control of bias in a story are what differentiate between Stewart's disregard for authenticity and a "real" reporters take on the story.
The swine flue issue is really one that the mainstream media has picked up on like a bunch of ants on a lollipop. Dopplegangers hang off each other as each network strives to be up the the minute as absolutely nothing happens. On average, about 3000 people or more die in a car crash each day. In fact it is just as likely you could be killed by a 1, 051 pound, 8 foot wild pig that was shot in Alabama in 2007 by an eleven year old boy...talk about Swine Flu! As the Swine Flu continues to rage (and miraculously kill barely anyone) the news sources will go about thier reporting, creating a hellish outlook on the future, and Jon Stewart will be there to make it all better with a "droopy dog" face and a look that say "Forget you, I AM the news".
When I was younger and my grandfather came to visit, all had to be completely silent while the news was on...even the NYSE and the S & P required complete silence. For the most part American's act like there is an invisible grandfather watching over them, they are completely silent during the news just taking in the supposed information and blindly consuming it like a burger with salmonella. But where is the interaction that Marshall McLuhan describes as "hot" media? This phenomenon is reserved for 8pm when the gambit of Comedy shows comes on, giving Americans a chance to laugh, to interact, to joke and to actually question the "news".
The greatest example of this is the story that plagues us (no pun intended) even now, the elusive and "widespread" Swine Flu. Despite the fact that CNN, MSNBC and FOX have all literally been infecting people with information about this new strain of flu, they are now taking a step back and saying...not to freak anyone out about this or (in reality) have this look like we were just putting all this stupid hype on television and making it look really scary. Jon Stewart responded to this hysteria saying, "Do you even watch your own networks? You're the only reason we ARE freaking out!". Stewart covered this phenomenon in his segment on April 27 in the section called "The Last 100 Days". "We were supposed to be talking about Obama's first one hundred days, and how it's gone. Clearly this guy" he says motioning towards the heavens, "has other plans".
Using clips from all three major news sources, Stewart creates a montage of all the ridiculous things reporters will ask their physicians, speculators, psychics, ambassadors, politicians. Really he takes the things they say, and actually analyzes them and then makes that analysis into comedy. After all, says Stewart Swine Flu is the least of your worries in Mexico, the elusive and contagious "Bullet flu" which remains "airborne" is still number one on things that can kill you in Mexico.
But how does "The Daily Show" go beyond making fun of the news and instead actually serve to educate people? For one, most people are absolutely sick of the political system and anything that serves up a high dose of reality is going to be popular. Secondly, by combining actual news stories into a format people can actually understand and "get" viewers are actually consuming more information than they would from the old guy taking about politcal dogma for 45 minutes. According to Rachel Smolkin in her article, "What Mainstream Media Can Learn From Jon Stewart", "A 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 21 percent of people age 18 to 29 cited comedy shows such as "The Daily Show" and "Saturday Night Live" as places where they regularly learned presidential campaign news, nearly equal to the 23 percent who regularly learned something from the nightly network news or from daily newspapers". There's a reason that regular newspapers are fading and newsstations are adding segments like "Bill O'Reilly" and "Keith Olbermann"...people want someone to analyze their news for them. Just another way that Americans have become lazy. We don't want someone to give us the actual facts about swine flu, we want 20 different networks feelings about it...and no we don't want to know anything about it.
In a recent interview with Paris Hilton, CNN asked her what she thought of the swine flu, she responded, "What? I don't eat those!". Withought Jon Stewart would people who consider themselves to be "non-political" also think that swine flu has something to do with Babe or Charlotte's Web? Stewart's show allows for people who are not really big on the Capitol Hill scene to see a dichotomy between American political thought and the absolute garbage that FOX and CNN spew all day on televisions nationwide. American's finally have a chance to use what Marshall McLuhan described as a "hot" media and actually interact with a source instead of letting it tell them what to do.
Why can't journalists see past their need for television ratings and wishy-washy content to have a little of Stewarts obvious sarcasm? Smolkin mentions Jeff Jarvis, a well known bloggers reaction to reporters shyness, "After enough drinks, reporters talk like Stewart: 'You won't BELIEVE what the mayor said today!' Why don't we talk to our readers that way?" he asks, and then acknowledges: "OK. There's a lot of arguments: 'The mayor won't talk to us again.' 'It's biased.' 'We don't want to turn everything into blogs.'"Perhaps journalistic integrity and control of bias in a story are what differentiate between Stewart's disregard for authenticity and a "real" reporters take on the story.
The swine flue issue is really one that the mainstream media has picked up on like a bunch of ants on a lollipop. Dopplegangers hang off each other as each network strives to be up the the minute as absolutely nothing happens. On average, about 3000 people or more die in a car crash each day. In fact it is just as likely you could be killed by a 1, 051 pound, 8 foot wild pig that was shot in Alabama in 2007 by an eleven year old boy...talk about Swine Flu! As the Swine Flu continues to rage (and miraculously kill barely anyone) the news sources will go about thier reporting, creating a hellish outlook on the future, and Jon Stewart will be there to make it all better with a "droopy dog" face and a look that say "Forget you, I AM the news".
