Of course I’ll admit to a personal grudge against Cramer. My 401K took a major beating when he upgraded BLUTH & CO. from TRIPLE SELL to RISKY.
Craig Ferguson has a bit of this in him. I think if you’re a smart person, even if you’re a comedian, once in a while you have to say, “Whoa, seriously, what the fuck is going on here?!” Much like Ferguson said of Britney Spears coverage. Does Ferguson owe us anything because he’s thoughtful? Of course not.
Sure Stewart does that kind of thing more often, but it’s not the messenger’s fault that that high level of bullshit in media and politics is news to most.
I always thought that it was pretty clear that, when he makes a joke instead of responding, he is, in effect, saying, “I disagree, but let’s move on.” Except he’s doing it in a humorous fashion. I’m not sure why it’s important that he make a literal statement to that effect - surely, the end result is identical in both cases, no?
As to the issue of what sort of “journalistic responsibility” he has, I agree that he does have a certain responsibility in that area. His show is a conscious and deliberate parody of a cable news show. But it is not a news show in and of itself. As such, his responsibility is to point out the failings of legitimate news outlets. It is not his responsibility to fulfil the role those outlets are neglecting. Carlson criticizing Stewart for not being hard hitting with John Kerry, or Scarborough asking for his stock picks, are no more legitimate criticisms than Michael Bay demanding that Roger Ebert direct his own Summer blockbuster action movie. It’s not Ebert’s job to make movies, it’s his job to criticize them. And it’s not Jon Stewarts job to report the news. It’s his job to criticize how others report it.
But it wasn’t a bad interview - at least not the way you mean it. It was common courtesy. John Kerry did not appear on TDS to do a serious interview. To hit him with hard questions would have been, quite simply, rude.
Stewart’s interviews with “serious” people falls precisely within the long-standing tradition of late-night talk show hosts - a few “serious” questions, largely designed to allow the politician to make the sound bite he/she wants to make, but largely devoted to humour and banter - to allow the politician to show his/her “funny” side.
The only legitimate criticism I would accept that Stewart is hiding behind his “comedian” label is if TDS had made a false allegation or factual error and then refused any responsibility to correct the error on the grounds that TDS is a comedy show. But that is a standard I would impose on any comedian.
Sua
I think Stewart is this generation’s Thomas Nast. Nast didn’t expose Boss Tweed or pretend to be a journalist, he was at best a reporter (big difference- I really prefer the Brit term “news reader” to journalist/reporters for most talking heads since it’s more accurate) but mostly a satirical commentator. Nast gave us Santa Claus (as commonly pictured) as well, Stewart gave us CLUSTERF&CK TO THE WHITE HOUSE. We’ll see which one stands the test of time.
I don’t care if Jon Stewart is rude, and sometimes he doesn’t either. There have been plenty of guests who went on TDS expecting softballs and instead got skewered, like Ramesh Ponnuru and Chris Matthews did. The guests don’t get to choose if their interview will be serious or not. That decision gets made by Jon Stewart as host and producer. Sometimes I know why he made his choice to rake a guest over the coals or to be civil, and other times I don’t. John Kerry’s interview was in the “I don’t know” category, which would have been okay if it was at least funny, but it wasn’t.
I don’t know if it’s more impressive or alarming that DAILY SHOW (and now COLBERT REPORT) viewers test better on current events than those whose primary news info is from mainstream TV and cable news and tied with newspaper readers. Cite. This is not the first poll to find that either.
I don’t unfortunately. I just remember how poorly he reacted to the gift.
I remember that the gift was little cowboy boots with GOP written on the soles. I think it happened during the Republican national convention in 2004, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
E-Sabbath already posted the answer but it appears the link doesn’t work.
Here’s the video.
It says that you’re as much a journalist as the people on the news networks. If Stewart’s show focuses as much on news as the NBC nightly news, and he’s not a journalist, then Brian Williams isn’t a journalist either.
If Stewart focuses on the news, and more importantly, if large portions of the population are using his show as their main source of information about the news, he’s a journalist.
This is beginning to remind me of the “Are rappers/rock stars/movie stars/athletes/random celebrities” role models?" debate. I think you are what you promote yourself as first and foremost.
An old Comedy Central promo for TDS said (IIRC) “More people get their news from the Daily Show” than probably should." Which is it exactly. Real news organizations select stories based on importance, not on comedic value, and tend not to photoshop their pictures to make them funny. I must admit that since the beginning of the Happy New movement news programs have been heading for TDS territory, which is Stewart’s point, I think.
I rather suspect that comes from TDS being funnier if you actually know what they are talking about, and thus are up on the news. I suspect the audience skews younger and more educated than the nightly news shows.
As for newspapers, I get the Times and our local rag, but if I got only our rag I’d know fuck-all about what was going on in the world.
That is not the definition of journalist. Focusing on news is not at all the same thing as reporting news. The news networks decide what is news and what to report on. They create the news, for better or worse. Stewart doesn’t do that at all. He sits back and mocks their decisions and the stories they report on. That makes him a lot of things, but journalist isn’t one of them.
If the news networks have terrible standards of journalism, that failure doesn’t turn Stewart into something he’s not.
Sure had that figured out ,didn’t you/ He is serious as hell and kicking his ass.
He’s getting ripped a new one.
I’m almost starting to feel sorry for Cramer. I do give him credit for having the balls to sit through this, though.
What a powerful interview.
CNBC sent Cramer into the lion’s den with nothing. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.