Why Jon Stewart Matters

August 20, 2006

A study conducted prior to the 2004 elections was published recently in American Politics Research, reporting that researchers have connected The Daily Show to lower opinions of politicians and greater cynicism toward the mainstream media and the electoral process itself, further hypothesizing that Jon Stewart could make young people less likely to vote.

In response to a poll indicating that a number of college students are getting their news solely from The Daily Show, Stewart himself hastened to point out that not only is he a comedian doing “fake news” but that his audience wouldn’t even get his jokes if they weren’t keeping up with the news from other sources. Aside from that, the Daily Show doesn’t report the news but instead uses real news footage with Stewart merely reacting to it. Therefore, even if we were only getting our information from The Daily Show – which is unlikely – what we’re getting is a regular look at politicians – our "leaders" – speaking for themselves and, in the process, often making contradictory, questionable and disturbing statements.

In fact, unlike the cable news talk show hosts, or “on air talent”, as their employers more appropriately call them, Jon Stewart seems to sincerely care about his country. Take for example his 2004 appearance on CNN’s yell-fest, "Crossfire", during which he implored Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala to "please stop", because "you’re hurting America" by pandering to political spin. It seems to be more than mere coincidence that CNN canceled "Crossfire" soon after that and let Tucker Carlson’s contract lapse; yet what Jon was referring to continues unabated on cable news talk shows. Commentators and "pundits" (to use a generous word) regularly pass off as fact their personal opinions on critical issues – often at the top of their voices – making erroneous, biased and otherwise misleading statements. Instead of challenging or correcting them, the hosts encourage their guests’ mis-statements, political spin and the ensuing arguments. It makes a better show, after all. Even the most supposedly credible guests – from Bob Woodward to members of the 9/11 commission – choose and couch their words so carefully that any meaning or point, if there was one, gets lost along the way. Those who dare speak out candidly – like, say, Joe Wilson or Dan Rather – are swift-boated and we the people are left with propaganda.

A recent example of our incompetent and irresponsible news media at work came on August 3 when the majority of news hosts let go unquestioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee that one would "have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I've been excessively optimistic" about the war in Iraq. Unlike most of the real news shows, it took The (fake news) Daily Show no time at all to find – and air – clips of Rumsfeld’s optimistic pre-war claims. On August 11, CNN Headline News host Chuck Roberts, discussing the impact of the foiled British terror plot on the Lieberman/Lamont campaign with Hotline senior editor John Mercurio, asked, “And might some argue, as some have, that Lamont is the al Qaeda candidate?” He has since apologized for this, but by then the Cheney-Rove machine had set all of the media puppets’ tongues to waggin’ with the suggestion that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for Al Qaeda.

It doesn’t even seem to matter anymore that a number of these hosts and hostesses are "news models" (a phrase aptly coined by Air America’s Randi Rhodes) who merely read from cue cards, often mispronouncing names – painfully reminiscent of Tom Grunick, the William Hurt character in Broadcast News. (Remember his manufactured tear?) The only job requisite for these hosts and their guests would seem to be merely a “gift of gab”. Everyone these days has an agenda – and often a book – to sell and they’re using the bully pulpit of television to peddle it. It’s all a game to them.

How perfectly ironic to learn from Gotham Magazine this summer that the president of CNN is only using his position as a day job while pursuing his real career of screenwriter. It’s no longer a secret that highly rated Fox News is merely a mouthpiece for the Bush administration or that Bill O’Reilly, among others, invents his own “facts”. Tucker Carlson – having learned nothing from Jon Stewart’s comments on “Crossfire” – moved on to MSNBC where, on his already revamped show, he called Al Gore a "wild-eyed religious nut" whose "religion is the environment", implying that global climate change should not be taken seriously. The spin on subjects like evolution and the war in Iraq is enough to make a person dizzy, and make it almost impossible to separate fact from fiction. Other critical issues, from the genocide in Darfur to the Republicans’ recent attempt to raise minimum wage in the same bill that includes a repeal of the estate tax for the wealthy, rarely rate a mention; but tune into any of these channels and you’ll be fully informed about Mel Gibson’s drunk driving episode, Britney Spears’ latest mishap or the search for a photo of Tom and Katie’s baby. In spite of that, the recent efforts of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Bono to focus attention on problems in Africa have yielded little coverage of those issues.

Worse yet are some of the talk radio hosts. Rush Limbaugh regularly makes outrageous and inaccurate statements – and even crops audio quotes – to serve his purpose, and Dennis Prager has been known to repeat unfounded claims against such democrats as Hillary Clinton. Others, like Michael Savage, don’t care whom they hurt with their boldly stated untruths. On the August 7 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Savage declared that CNN hosts Wolf Blitzer and Larry King "look like the type that would have pushed Jewish children into the oven to stay alive one more day to entertain the Nazis." Although Larry King and Wolf Blitzer are as likely as any of them to let false statements go by, this is unconscionable.

Sadly, you’re less likely to find truth than (with a tip of the hat to Stephen Colbert) “truthiness” on television newscasts at a time when speed is more important than accuracy; corporations own the media; ratings equate to income; stockholders want their share and everyone has an ulterior motive.

Speaking as a not-so-young regular viewer of The Daily Show who does keep up with the news and has voted too often for the lesser of two evils, Jon Stewart does not make me cynical; politicians on both sides of the aisle and our untrustworthy media do that all too well on their own. Jon Stewart, on the other hand, keeps me sane with his daily reality-check of the news. More often than not, he echoes my own thoughts and reactions, reminds me that I’m not imagining things, and sometimes, yes, I even learn something.

The next time researchers want to spend time on a study, they might try looking into why our news media are collaborating with politicians to mislead the American people.

Meanwhile, watch for Tucker Carlson’s upcoming guest spot on Dancing With The Stars. Remember – when it comes to TV news, it’s just show biz. And it is hurting America.

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