27 July 2004

Stewart in da hiz-ouse

Thanks to bump for pointing me to a short article in USA Today about Jon Stewart's recent rant at the media. It's low on content and definitely makes you want more:

Does it bother Stewart that so many potential voters are relying on a joke show for information?

''I'm concerned about the incredible number of people who say they get the news from you guys,'' Stewart shot back. Sensitive scribes scowled.

The tightly wrapped comic's harangue included a blast at the media's ''absolute acceptance of being stage-managed'' and an attack on Washington as a city of ''absolute self-delusion and arrogance.''

The article was prompted by the results of a poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which showed that 21% of viewers ages 18 to 29 named The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as places where they get news about the presidential campaign. A related article over at The Boston Globe points out the Pew study merely shows that more people watch "The Daily Show" than before. It goes on to quote Stewart from a Harvard appearance in 2002:

A student asked if he realized that most younger people got their news from him. "That's retarded," Stewart said.

With the more recent comments, he's taking networks to task for pushing viewers to choose comedy news over "real" news. So, we complain about the news outlets becoming entertainment, and in rebellion we go to entertainment for news. Maybe we are retarded.

[ posted by sstrader on 27 July 2004 at 1:40:45 PM in Politics ]