
The Jon Stewart Decade - ziweb
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/profiles/68086/
======
andreyf
_America's politicians, willingly or not, often seem like they’re actors in
scripts created by cable producers._

But that's what they are to most people. Literally.

Most people's only _perception_ of politicians is one as disobedient actors in
the production of a television show, a truth that's been with us since
Kennedy. Politics is, and always will be, a part of infotainment, because news
story economics work by the same principles as all other stories on TV.

But think twice before you think the of the reflexive "the internet will
change everything". No - a lot has changed, but the vast majority of people
will still want and watch the kick-in-the-nuts-humor over NPR, Democracy Now,
or The American Conservative, just as they've been doing for decades.

------
chime
> Oh, Stewart & Co. enjoy a lowbrow laugh as much as the folks over at South
> Park; heck, next week they’re publishing a book that includes some excellent
> masturbation jokes. But Stewart and The Daily Show became America’s sharpest
> political satirists by aiming at least a little bit higher.

Oddly coincidental that if Matt Stone & Trey Parker of South Park fame read
this, their response would be "Thanks for the kick in the nuts." As per one of
their video interview, this is their usual response to when people categorize
them into the same bucket as Family Guy by saying something like "South Park
and Family Guy are the only shows I love." Why does the author feel the need
to compare South Park and Daily Show, so as to make Daily Show come on top? I
would rate both of these shows as the best of their respective genres, neither
aiming higher or lower than the other.

~~~
DannoHung
It would be a blatant lie to say that South Park doesn't use gross out humor
as one of it's primary tools.

Scott Tenorman Must Die is still their best episode ever.

~~~
chc
As the article noted, both South Park and The Daily Show use gross-out humor.
But the article implies that South Park stops there while The Daily Show does
grand political satire, when (as the GP notes) South Park's satire is on
roughly the same level. Family Guy would have been a better comparison.

------
vinhboy
I read the entire article just for this line

"There’s discussion of a possible Stewart-Colbert public event, a parody of
Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally. “Maybe we would do a ‘March of the
Reasonable,’ on a date of no particular significance,” Stewart says."

If you guys haven't heard, we are trying to start a reddit powered pseudo-
revolution and I am really glad that this bit made it into this story.

------
jameskilton
Here here! John Stewart does Glenn Beck was the BEST piece of satire TV we've
had in a decade.

I'm ever thankful of Stewart and Colbert, always reminding us that frankly,
life is too short to be so up-tight serious about everything.

------
tzury
single page version <http://nymag.com/print/?/arts/tv/profiles/68086/>

~~~
iamclovin
Thanks for this!

------
dogas
As much as I love the daily show (and the article was nice too), this does not
belong on HN.

~~~
krschultz
"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. "

I found the article to be very interesting, and apparently so did many others.
Not everything on here needs to be 100% about startups, programming, or
business.

------
lzw
I wonder if you guys realize that to republicans, Rush Limbaugh is a comedian.
He tells jokes, and when criticizing him to republicans, they will often say
he is just making fun.

Jon stweart is the rush limbaugh of The left. And thus as appropriate on
hacker news as limbaugh.

I'd like to talk about startups and technology, why do leftists keep posting
leftist news stories here and then down voting everyone who doesn't goose step
along with them?

I know the answer, but I wish you would keep that kind of activity in
reddit/r/politics. Not here.

~~~
js2
Just flag it:

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

------
w00pla2
John Stewart’s show is probably the worst show that someone could create. He
does not even attempt to be objective. A large part of 20 somethings use this
as their main news source. It is sad when people are not willing to watch news
for news’ sake (instead of having it mixed with comedy – like a child gets
medicine mixed with syrup).

And whilst the Daily Show serves as the main news source for many of 20
somethings, it does not even try to be objective. It often cuts video tapes
completely (usually making fun of someone whose ideology differs from that of
the viewers), uses video out of context, have interviews under false pretences
and does not give fair coverage. Yet the excuse for that is that “it is a
comedy show and not a news show”. It must choose, either one or the other –
either it is a news show (and should subscribe to journalistic ethics) or it
should be a comedy show (and try and involve itself in politics).

~~~
vaksel
1\. According to a study, Daily Show viewers are more informed about current
events than those that watch FOX, CNN, etc.

2\. They are a comedy show, so it's ok to do that(even though they don't abuse
that). FOX on the other hand does more than that, and they are supposed to be
a news channel. i.e. take that Hannity clip from a few days ago:
[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-
september-9-2010/are-y...](http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-
september-9-2010/are-you-ready-for-some-midterms----msnbc-s-political-
narrative) (fast forward to 5 minutes)

3\. Everything doesn't have to be objective, just because you have a scientist
on talking about evolution, doesn't mean you have to bring in someone who
wants to talk about creationism. This whole "balanced" reporting that you want
is one of the reasons all these fringe nut jobs get their legitimacy. "Of
course the president was born in Kenya....I saw someone say that on a news
show".

~~~
DanielBMarkham
_According to a study, Daily Show viewers are more informed about current
events than those that watch FOX, CNN, etc._

Would love to see a source for that statement. If true, it's very interesting.

~~~
vaksel
here you go(2nd graph):

[http://people-press.org/report/319/public-knowledge-of-
curre...](http://people-press.org/report/319/public-knowledge-of-current-
affairs-little-changed-by-news-and-information-revolutions)

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Thanks! Cool stuff!

Looking at the numbers, though, I'm not sure it says what you think it says.
My impression is that it says that people who are interested in politics --
political humor from Jon, major newspaper websites, O'Reilly Factor watchers
-- know more than folks who just passively consume news every now and then
(Fox News Channel). That's the way the data looks to me, anyway.

~~~
vaksel
yes but out of those who actively consume this sort of news, Daily Show has
higher numbers.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I need to go back and study it some more, because from the abstract at the
bottom, titled "Knowledge Levels by News Source", The Daily Show/Colbert
Report looks like it's tied or bested in almost every category by folks who
read newspaper websites. In fact, if you call the margin of error around 4%,
there's really not much difference in the top several items. And I can't
believe something like this would be accurate down to 1 or 2 percentage points
or less.

