http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/business/media/27stewart.html?_r=3 And how effective do you think mock journalism is? Both Stewart and Colbert have a huge sway on how the masses think.. Both have made politicians win seats.. sell books.. pass bills.. win Turkish bridge naming contests(colbert).. hold a rally larger than Glen Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally... In a time when you can't trust the media.. is it safer for one to turn to the court jesters to reveal the truth? are they just another pawn? or the real deal?
As I recall, Edward R. Murrow was anything but funny. And I wouldn't call what Stewart does "mock journalism". He is an adept from the NYC school of cynicism. I'm an alumnus too...
They wont be able accomplish much and will just pass away without fullfilling what they really want to do. So they are just lost puppets in a political games.
Stewart is fantastic because aside from the comedy in the show which is often biting, when Stewart straight talks it can be wonderful. His monologue at the beginning of last night's episode on the Arizona shooting and tone of rhetoric in the country was probably the best I've seen out of any news person. His 9/11 monologue can also have the same about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqY3_0RSAXY"]YouTube - Jon Stewart´s reaction to 9/11 And if you want something disgusting after watching that, here's a FOX news broadcaster mocking Jon Stewart's response, as well as saying 9/11 was a good thing for America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvx73OawqBw"]YouTube - Fox News' John Gibson mocks Jon Stewart 9/11 response
I know Stewart is a darling of the left but he's contributed as much as anybody to ratcheting up the rhetoric and dumbing down the debate. He's been less vitriolic since Obama was elected (no surprise) but still seems to take great glee in tossing off Stupid Dubya, Retarded Tea Party or Evil Cheney jokes. Stewart's ego has been undergoing massive inflation ever since the success of his and Colbert's rally. Now he's starting to believe his press clippings and is really getting into his role as societal/cultural/political mover and shaker. I think he should stick to what he does best, hire smart funny people to surround him and lampoon everybody, regardless of political stripe.
With good cause, Stewarts week long tirade on how deplorable it was the 9/11 health care bill was being filibusters probably did more to get it passed than any other focus on it, since almost no TV or print media minus MSNBC covered it at all until after Stewarts roundtable with some of the first responder workers. There's a serious cultural problem in the news world when we're at the point Stewart has so much influence because people trust satirists more for their news than they do the actual news.
Stewart is sometimes one of the most serious journalists on TV even while being a comedian, especially when 2/3 of the comedy comes from pointing out how terribly irrelevant a lot of the actual news media has become in terms of actually reporting the news.
I was moved by Stewart's AZ shooting comments the other evening. Yes, he's a political comedian and satirist. But I thought his comment was very timely and cathartic in the upsetting period the day of the shooting. I constantly am reinforced by his call to moderation in political discourse. Our world would benefit from many more voices like his.
