Like many young people today, I am ashamed to say that my primary news source doesn’t actually come from a news source as all. My daily dose of current events is provided by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a “fake” news program touching on many of society’s most pressing issues through a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning satirical lens. Currently hosted by “anchorman” Jon Stewart, the Daily Show does a great job mocking the world’s politics, news media, current trends and social issues within a half-hour timeslot Monday through Friday. More or less, the show does a good job of making the world seem, really, really dumb.
The show premiered on Monday, July 22, 1996 with Craig Kilborn (of The Late Late Night Show with Craig Kilborn fame,) as the host. While the show had a good share of news coverage, it primarily focused on more of a more character-driven program. When Jon Stewart became the host in January 1999 after Kilborn went on to pursue supposedly bigger and better things, the show changed to a more news-driven focus around politics and media, and has since exploded with popularity.
A typical episode opens with the disembodied voice of Drew Birns announcing the date, followed by "From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Stewart will then open the show by delivering all the big headlines in the news that day like a typical anchorman would. Stewart then often speaks with the “senior correspondent” on the subject at hand, which more often than not is suspiciously specific. The correspondent is almost always reporting from a fake location in front of the green screen and delivers a wildly exaggerated take on the story at hand, more often than not as an attempt to play off of Stewart’s straight-man persona
The show then cuts to a commercial break and returns with a correspondent “field” story featuring a cast of characters has been self-proclaimed as the “best f’ing news team on the planet.” These stories feature the correspondents visiting and interviewing politicians or even random people in the street and asking them hard-hitting questions while in their absurdist character. While in the show’s early days these guests were often unwitting and left ignorant of the show’s true intent until it was too late, however, with the show’s recent burst of popularity, these guests are more often than not aware f what’s in for them and just play along with the cast. It can actually be pretty fun to try and figure out who’s in on it and who isn’t. Most of the time it’s pretty obvious (look at their recent RNC footage for example.)
Some shows will substitute a correspondent story with an often recurring segment, such as "Back in Black" with Lewis Black, where Lewis Black will rant about some social issue with standard Lewis Black rage, and "This Week in God" with Samantha Bee, where Bee will hit a button to simulate a random selection of a current religious story. Elections are also a large part of the show, so much that the second part of the show is cut out entirely in order to cover the current elections happenings. The show will even go on the road in order to cover political conventions in the towns that their being hosted in.
After a second commercial break, Stewart will conduct an interview with a guest ranging from actors promoting a new movie, musicians promoting a new album, authors promoting a new book and politicians often trying to pander some votes. During the show’s early years, it would often rely on celebrities and comedians for guests, since major publications such as the Rolling Stone described The Daily Show under Stewart as "the hot destination for anyone who wants to sell books or seem hip, from presidential candidates to military dictators," however, numerous high profile guests have made apperences, including former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Al Gore, Lynne Cheney, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Biden, John McCain and Barack Obama,
The show will often close itself with a exchange between Stewart and former correspondant Stephen Colbert who hosts the Daily Show’s sister show and The Colbert Report, a parody of non-partisan pundit programs such as The O’Rielly Factor.
In a world where it can be painful to watch mainstream news due to all the back and forth spin, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart delivers entertaining news despite not even being a news source. Not to say that there isn’t some obvious bias behind the stories, but at least they don’t try to hide it like most other news networks do. The Daily Show to this day continues to fill my day of world ignorance with stories so spun that they become un-spun.
3 comments:
I thought this depiction of the show was well written and "hits the nail on the head" as some people say. I believe that the anaysis was well thought out. Mainstream news coverage is always leaning toward one side of an issue, but they try to hide it. I happen to like and watch The Daily Show for the same reason. Whether I agree with Jon Stewarts opinion or not, The story is told in a raw real way. Good job.
The one section that I think offers the most for in depth analysis is the interviews at the end of the show. What I'm curious about is that Jon Stewart seems to transition from interviews with a lot of fluff to interviews where he comes off as aggressive. It doesn't seem to matter who is on the show, either, and though the show has a relatively liberal bias he seems to occasionally go on the attack against his liberal guests as well. I remember a show not too long ago in which he was tough and skeptical on his guest, who wrote a book on the Blackwater Private Military Company and felt compelled to apologize the next night of broadcast. I think it'd be interesting to find out what sparks these aggressive moods, even if it turns out just to be the result of him having a bad day or something.
Reading the description/analysis and the comments, i am reminded of a Woody Allen quote from the movie, "Annie Hall", he says something like, "yes, i'm a bigot, but i'm a bigot for the left."
The Daily Show does seem to agree to that notion. Personally, I don't mind. What I enjoy about the program is that he mocks current issues at hand. For example, many of Bush's failures would be passively presented in the real news, whereas, John would actually get upset and make good witty commentry that sounds more honest then what is being told on the real news sources.
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