Thursday, October 29, 2009. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Season 14 Comedy Central
Synopsis
This week on The Daily Show everyone’s favorite pundit Jon Stewart gave some comedic insight to the recent "War" between Fox News Channel and the White House Press. During the interview he gives everyone involved a turn to be laughed at for their individual idiocies, pointing out contradicting statements made by both sides and the overboard reactions from the other news stations. First he shows us how it all began, when a White House correspondent states "Fox often acts as the communications arm of the Republican party." Which everyone already knew. Feigning shock Stewart then sends us to sound bytes from Fox where they rant about being censored, one Fox associate (Cal Thomas) even comparing America to Cold War Russia, and President Obama to a truth twisting Stalin. Stewart notes that when the Bush Administration reacted in the exact same way to MSNBC a year earlier, Cal Thomas praised him on national television.
Later Fox News released a statement in which they said that the White House "needs to distinguish between news and opinion programming." We then get sound bytes from the opinion and the news sectors of Fox, showing that they don't make the distinguishment at all. On a show that Fox itself claims is strictly news one anchor is heard to say "Bush spent eight years in office fighting terrorism. President Obama is now undoing those efforts." Then he shows us a school's rendition of a song sang for black history month, which included the words: "Barack Hussein Obama will make this country strong again." Fox's opinion sector quickly compares Obama to Communist China's Mao and the Nazi propaganda efforts before WWII. Later that evening Fox's news sector states that the President is being accused of indoctrination. Stewart jokes that the only people doing the accusing were the other Fox guys they ran into in the cafeteria.
Next are the reactions of other news corporations. CNN runs a breathtaking slide show of the conflict between Fox and the White House complete with theme music and angry faces from both sides. CBS proclaims that there is no end in sight to the “war” between two sides throwing “verbal grenades” at one another’s direction. MSNBC makes an attempt to mock Fox at which point Stewart yells “You guys are the Toledo Mud Hens to the Fox’s Yankees! You would love to be half as controversial.” Later a White House correspondent is asked if Fox news is biased to which she responds of course! Right after she is asked if MSNBC is biased, to which she answers: “We don’t want generalize the bias of an entire news station.”
Response
I agree with most of Stewart's opinions on this subject, though I do recognize that most of the quotes are taken out of context and the subject is quite a bit more professional and multi-dimensional than The Daily Show presents it. I myself am a conservative, but of the opinion that regardless of your party affiliation if someone in the government is being stupid they have more than earned the right to be made fun of. Though Jon Stewart’s criticism seems like harmless prodding, its obvious that he is quite passionate about politics and upset with the deception and stupidity inherent of the current system. After hearing a White House reporter say “We’re going to speak truth to power” Stewart yells out “Apparently its your job to ---- up power and Fox’s job to ---- up truth!” I personally would prefer to watch Fox News to the other stations. But its important that news stations check and balance each other so the things spoken are correct and the opinions presented are reasonable. Without the competition of liberal and conservative news stations (and humorous shows to intercede) it would be nearly impossible to get facts about the political climate and answers to each American’s personal questions.
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I agree, news shows need to check and balance each other to give the public realistic information about current issues. But I don't think its happening today. Every news-media source out there has an opinion, and every news-media source presents it in a way that caters to their opinion. Thats America. We can say whatever we want, so thats what happens. Luckily we are able to look at all of these sources to gather our own opinions.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also agree with your statement that "if someone in the government is being stupid they have more than earned the right to be made fun of." SNL, the Daily Show etc. are all hilarious-especially when they focus on politics. People are funny.
Yeah, I find its hard to get a story presented with both sides for all to see on the news today. You usually have to watch the same story multiple times on different news stations in order to get the whole story sometimes. But yeah, like Maddie says, "Thats America." Its not required we strictly say the same thing. Opinions are what makes life interesting. It's our responsibility to search different sources in order to construct our own well rounded opinions.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I ride a left handed Donkey while wearing a blue shirt I absolutely AGREE! I watched that same episode and laughed so hard I cried but when watching Fox news later to heckle and yell hate rhetoric I found that although it was one sided John the beloved definitely swung things for the right(the left).
ReplyDeleteI still plan on watching his show religiously but will take everything with a grain of salt. I also watched a segment of news from Fox news that was later commented on by John the Beloved It was absolutely taken out of context and made some anchors for Fox look like complete idiots. Funny? YES. But accurate? I think not.
I agree with jacob when he says that," if someone in the government does something stupid they should be made fun of." where my view disagree is the fact that you have to remember that you are watching a TV show. All television is scripted and competing for the leading spot. The easiest way to keep up with the competition is to do what they do till you find the next best thing, the problem here is that now the "competition" is copying you until they get the next big story. Hence John Stewert makes fun of Obama, steven Colbert then proceeds to poke fun at our president. and this is why people do what they do on the tube.
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