For Americans, after almost two years of electioneering, the prospect of going cold turkey in less than a week is producing symptoms of anxiety on all sides. The campaigns, of course, are doing what they have to do--Obama people warning about overconfidence and McCain strategists sweating for a scrappy finish a la Harry Truman in 1948.
In between, pollsters and pundits, in a panic to fill the time with perceived wisdom, are sprinting in all directions--the race is tightening (Gallup) as races always do with "buyer's remorse" setting in, an Obama landslide is coming (Pew Research Center), but we either don't really know what his presidency would be like (Washington Post) or we know only too well and should head for the bunkers (Wall Street Journal).
Tonight is the night of TV with Obama's half-hour wall-to-wall infomercial, which may either be a triumph of taking advantage of his fund-raising prowess or a reminder of his broken promise to limit himself to public financing (Campbell Brown on CNN).
By the time we see him on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, we should be in desperate need of a laugh or a five-day nap until next Tuesday.
Showing posts with label Daily Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Show. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
High-Fives for Fake News
Journalism research today shows devotees of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to be better-informed than watchers of cable news shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Larry King, thereby raising the question of whether it's more helpful to lampoon the news than slobber all over it.
Asked which party now controls Congress, who is the current US secretary of state and to name the new prime minister of Great Britain, Comedy Central viewers outscored those who watch most cable TV news programs as well as those who claim to read newsmagazines and daily newspapers.
On the weekend, the New York Times asked, "Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?" with critic Michiko Kakutani concluding the Daily Show "has earned a devoted following that regards the broadcast as both the smartest, funniest show on television and a provocative and substantive source of news.
"'The Daily Show' resonates not only because it is wickedly funny but also because its keen sense of the absurd is perfectly attuned to an era in which cognitive dissonance has become a national epidemic."
What Stewart and Colbert tonight will make of two men aspiring to the most powerful position in the world being quizzed like schoolboys by a best-selling, pop culture clergyman remains to be seen, but it's clear that only connoisseurs of the ridiculous can do the sight justice.
Asked which party now controls Congress, who is the current US secretary of state and to name the new prime minister of Great Britain, Comedy Central viewers outscored those who watch most cable TV news programs as well as those who claim to read newsmagazines and daily newspapers.
On the weekend, the New York Times asked, "Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?" with critic Michiko Kakutani concluding the Daily Show "has earned a devoted following that regards the broadcast as both the smartest, funniest show on television and a provocative and substantive source of news.
"'The Daily Show' resonates not only because it is wickedly funny but also because its keen sense of the absurd is perfectly attuned to an era in which cognitive dissonance has become a national epidemic."
What Stewart and Colbert tonight will make of two men aspiring to the most powerful position in the world being quizzed like schoolboys by a best-selling, pop culture clergyman remains to be seen, but it's clear that only connoisseurs of the ridiculous can do the sight justice.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
McCain's Backward Media March
For a campaign in which he faces a quarter-of-a-century age gap with Barack Obama, John McCain has been busy searching for the media's Fountain of Youth, last night on SNL and with a forthcoming interview in Glamour.
Taking a leaf from his hero, Ronald Reagan, who was even older when running for reelection in 1984, McCain is making jokes about his age. In a presidential debate back then, the 73-year-old Reagan deadpanned about Walter Mondale: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
In a parody political ad on Saturday Night Live, McCain emoted, “Good evening, my fellow Americans. I ask you: what should we be looking for in our next president? Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old...I have the courage, the wisdom, the experience and most importantly, the oldness necessary."
He added that controlling government spending was about being able to look your children in the eye, “or in my case my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren--the youngest of whom are nearing retirement.’’
Interviewed by Glamour, whose readers are young women under 35, McCain says he finds the website, ThingsYoungerMcCain.com., "hilarious." Told that Scrabble, the Golden Gate Bridge and area codes are on the list, he added, "Yes indeed. Not to mention the Internet and...maybe even color TV."
Technically, experimental color sets predate him, but not cable TV. More importantly, he is senior to the whole generation of Baby Boomers, who now make up the majority of older voters.
But that won't faze the potentially most ancient President ever to take office, who has been one of Jon Stewart's most frequent Daily Show guests. Next stop: Sesame Street.
Taking a leaf from his hero, Ronald Reagan, who was even older when running for reelection in 1984, McCain is making jokes about his age. In a presidential debate back then, the 73-year-old Reagan deadpanned about Walter Mondale: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
In a parody political ad on Saturday Night Live, McCain emoted, “Good evening, my fellow Americans. I ask you: what should we be looking for in our next president? Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old...I have the courage, the wisdom, the experience and most importantly, the oldness necessary."
He added that controlling government spending was about being able to look your children in the eye, “or in my case my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren--the youngest of whom are nearing retirement.’’
Interviewed by Glamour, whose readers are young women under 35, McCain says he finds the website, ThingsYoungerMcCain.com., "hilarious." Told that Scrabble, the Golden Gate Bridge and area codes are on the list, he added, "Yes indeed. Not to mention the Internet and...maybe even color TV."
Technically, experimental color sets predate him, but not cable TV. More importantly, he is senior to the whole generation of Baby Boomers, who now make up the majority of older voters.
But that won't faze the potentially most ancient President ever to take office, who has been one of Jon Stewart's most frequent Daily Show guests. Next stop: Sesame Street.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Studying Jon Stewart
"The Daily Show performs a function that is close to journalistic in nature, getting people to think critically about the public square. In that sense, it is a variation of the tradition of Russell Baker, Art Hoppe, Art Buchwald, H.L. Mencken and other satirists who once graced the pages of American newspapers."
That's the conclusion of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism after studying Jon Stewart and his merry crew for an entire year, buttressed by the fact that the Daily Show "not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke."
The study picks up on the fact that the show is as much about media criticism as political satire by noting, "The press itself is another significant focus on The Daily Show. In all, 8% of the time was made up of segments about the press and news media. That is more than double the amount of coverage of media in the mainstream press overall during the same period."
In a time when MSM are featuring jokers like Robert Novak, William Kristol and Karl Rove, it's comforting to see some academic recognition of commentators who are being intentionally funny.
That's the conclusion of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism after studying Jon Stewart and his merry crew for an entire year, buttressed by the fact that the Daily Show "not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke."
The study picks up on the fact that the show is as much about media criticism as political satire by noting, "The press itself is another significant focus on The Daily Show. In all, 8% of the time was made up of segments about the press and news media. That is more than double the amount of coverage of media in the mainstream press overall during the same period."
In a time when MSM are featuring jokers like Robert Novak, William Kristol and Karl Rove, it's comforting to see some academic recognition of commentators who are being intentionally funny.
Monday, February 25, 2008
No More Oscars for Jon Stewart
Two years ago, it might have just been the unease of doing something new before hundreds of millions of people, but last night made it clear: Jon Stewart shouldn't be hosting the Academy Awards.
With his exquisite sense of the absurd, Stewart can't break through the defenses of an audience that takes its own absurdity solemnly, and he is much too polite to provoke them outrageously. So he is reduced to making lame, outdated jokes about Dennis Hopper's drug haze and MCing a la Larry King--a little like watching a thoroughbred pulling a rusty plow.
Send back the clowns with their one-liners and let Stewart concentrate on saving our sanity on the Daily Show.
With his exquisite sense of the absurd, Stewart can't break through the defenses of an audience that takes its own absurdity solemnly, and he is much too polite to provoke them outrageously. So he is reduced to making lame, outdated jokes about Dennis Hopper's drug haze and MCing a la Larry King--a little like watching a thoroughbred pulling a rusty plow.
Send back the clowns with their one-liners and let Stewart concentrate on saving our sanity on the Daily Show.
Monday, November 05, 2007
"No Money, No Funny"
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno and David Letterman won't be doing monologues about today's news tonight because their brains are on strike. More than 12,000 TV and movie writers are walking picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, carrying signs like "No Money, No Funny."
The Writers Guilds want a bigger share for their members of revenue from DVD and Internet sales of movies and TV shows, producers are balking and pickets are out chanting digital age slogans, "No downloads!"
But instead of hard hats and work boots, the New York Times reports, today's Norma Raes are sporting arty glasses and fancy scarves.
Ever since the early days of Hollywood, writers have had to fight for respect and money. Producers called them "gag men" back then and treated them like the flunkies who brought the doughnuts and coffee to the set.
The network series and movie distributors have a backlog of new offerings to keep them going but, for a generation that gets most of its news from the Daily Show and other late-night programs, it's going to be re-run city for a while.
MSM and bloggers will have to take up the slack.
The Writers Guilds want a bigger share for their members of revenue from DVD and Internet sales of movies and TV shows, producers are balking and pickets are out chanting digital age slogans, "No downloads!"
But instead of hard hats and work boots, the New York Times reports, today's Norma Raes are sporting arty glasses and fancy scarves.
Ever since the early days of Hollywood, writers have had to fight for respect and money. Producers called them "gag men" back then and treated them like the flunkies who brought the doughnuts and coffee to the set.
The network series and movie distributors have a backlog of new offerings to keep them going but, for a generation that gets most of its news from the Daily Show and other late-night programs, it's going to be re-run city for a while.
MSM and bloggers will have to take up the slack.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The Daily Show's Giant Head Speaks Out
For a new generation, Ted Koppel is the old guy on a huge screen behind Jon Stewart who occasionally reminds the fake-news anchor what real journalists do. Yesterday, he had some tougher things to say to future news people.
At a Fordham University forum sponsored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the 67-year-old Koppel weighed in on the fate of 75-year-old Dan Rather, who is suing CBS for mistreating him in the furor over George Bush’s National Guard Service and failure to serve in Vietnam.
It was a “travesty,” Koppel said, that Rather was “squeezed out” for a story that was “much more correct than incorrect.”
Expanding on the woes of journalists at TV networks owned by self-protecting conglomerates, he pointed out that, as part of the Walt Disney Company, “ABC News is a pimple on the elephant’s behind.”
Last night Koppel got a Lifetime Achievement Award from the TV Academy. Looking back, he told a TelevisionWeek reporter why could never get an interview with Bush in the White House.
When the Decider was first running in 2000, Koppel asked what qualified him and Bush cited his experience as a governor, running a baseball team, and the fact that he was a loving husband and father.
Koppel observed that those were good qualifications for a president of the Kiwanis Club, but not the United States. He could never get to see Bush again, but Koppel may have doing the Kiwanis an injustice.
At a Fordham University forum sponsored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the 67-year-old Koppel weighed in on the fate of 75-year-old Dan Rather, who is suing CBS for mistreating him in the furor over George Bush’s National Guard Service and failure to serve in Vietnam.
It was a “travesty,” Koppel said, that Rather was “squeezed out” for a story that was “much more correct than incorrect.”
Expanding on the woes of journalists at TV networks owned by self-protecting conglomerates, he pointed out that, as part of the Walt Disney Company, “ABC News is a pimple on the elephant’s behind.”
Last night Koppel got a Lifetime Achievement Award from the TV Academy. Looking back, he told a TelevisionWeek reporter why could never get an interview with Bush in the White House.
When the Decider was first running in 2000, Koppel asked what qualified him and Bush cited his experience as a governor, running a baseball team, and the fact that he was a loving husband and father.
Koppel observed that those were good qualifications for a president of the Kiwanis Club, but not the United States. He could never get to see Bush again, but Koppel may have doing the Kiwanis an injustice.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wesley Clark for V.P. ?
When the 2004 Presidential candidate announced his support for Hillary Clinton this month, Gen. Wesley Clark seemed destined to become a Cabinet member if she were to win the White House next year. But he is beginning to look more like a potential running mate.
If Rudy Giuliani’s rabid attacks on Clinton and the Democrats as soft on defense against terrorists foreshadow the Republican ’08 strategy, Clark’s military experience and strategic credentials would be an effective counterweight to Gen. Giuliani’s experience as commander of the TV cameras in the wake of 9/11 or Fred Thompson’s laid-back war talk.
On the Daily Show last night, Clark artfully defended Gen. David Petraeus, who served under him when they were both junior officers, on a personal level while noting that the Surge was “too late” to solve our problems in Iraq.
Clark’s experience, not only as Supreme Commander in Europe during the Kosovo war but in the jungles of Washington intrigue with the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, would be useful not only as campaign window dressing but in the realities of a new Clinton Administration elected to clean up Bush’s military and diplomatic mess around the world.
As he makes the TV rounds promoting his new book, “A Time to Lead,” and arguing for diplomatic rather than military engagement with Iran, Gen. Clark may be working his way up more than the best-seller list.
If Rudy Giuliani’s rabid attacks on Clinton and the Democrats as soft on defense against terrorists foreshadow the Republican ’08 strategy, Clark’s military experience and strategic credentials would be an effective counterweight to Gen. Giuliani’s experience as commander of the TV cameras in the wake of 9/11 or Fred Thompson’s laid-back war talk.
On the Daily Show last night, Clark artfully defended Gen. David Petraeus, who served under him when they were both junior officers, on a personal level while noting that the Surge was “too late” to solve our problems in Iraq.
Clark’s experience, not only as Supreme Commander in Europe during the Kosovo war but in the jungles of Washington intrigue with the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, would be useful not only as campaign window dressing but in the realities of a new Clinton Administration elected to clean up Bush’s military and diplomatic mess around the world.
As he makes the TV rounds promoting his new book, “A Time to Lead,” and arguing for diplomatic rather than military engagement with Iran, Gen. Clark may be working his way up more than the best-seller list.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Osama Has Jumped the Shark
There is something weird about Osama bin Laden’s new tape, an old-timer with dyed facial hair or, even worse, a chin rug, trying to be “with it” by snappy remarks about Bush, the Democrats and Iraq, the mortgage crisis, the new British and French leaders, whatever. He and/or his ghost writer must watch the Daily Show in a bad translation.
Al Qaeda may well be planning new terror attacks on the U.S., but it’s not likely that the garrulous elderly man in this new Islamic infomercial is in charge of them. He is too busy reading Michael Scheuer and Noam Chomsky.
Six weeks ago, the director of national intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell pointed out “it’s been a year” since there was a confirmed sighting of bin Laden: “There are rumors about his illness...I believe he is in the tribal region of Pakistan, and...only speaking to a courier, staying completely removed from anything we could exploit to find him.”
Trotting out bin Laden on the anniversary of 9/11 may be a boost for jihadist morale, a reminder of the good old days of terrorism, but the next step would be a roast on Comedy Central.
Al Qaeda may well be planning new terror attacks on the U.S., but it’s not likely that the garrulous elderly man in this new Islamic infomercial is in charge of them. He is too busy reading Michael Scheuer and Noam Chomsky.
Six weeks ago, the director of national intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell pointed out “it’s been a year” since there was a confirmed sighting of bin Laden: “There are rumors about his illness...I believe he is in the tribal region of Pakistan, and...only speaking to a courier, staying completely removed from anything we could exploit to find him.”
Trotting out bin Laden on the anniversary of 9/11 may be a boost for jihadist morale, a reminder of the good old days of terrorism, but the next step would be a roast on Comedy Central.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
A Test for Jon Stewart
From today’s USA Today: “First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna Bush are writing a children's book about a boy who doesn't like to read. It is based on their experiences as teachers.”
Teachers? The Daily Show writers must be in a tizzy, but only a cad would comment in print.
Teachers? The Daily Show writers must be in a tizzy, but only a cad would comment in print.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Dwarfing Jon Stewart
It's hard to get to sleep being haunted by visions of the hugeness of Michael Moore on the Daily Show a few hours ago. Did he eat Al Gore?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Blonde Bombshelling the News
Cable TV is giving the Fairness Doctrine new meaning this week as Elizabeth Edwards launches a surprise counterattack on Ann Coulter and flaxen-haired Paris Hilton breaks her silence on Larry King tonight.
But these celebrity blondes are only part of the picture, the dark side if you will. The Daily Show, as always, is onto the main story about the platinumming of the news, as Samantha Bee so well and warmly described it not long ago.
But these celebrity blondes are only part of the picture, the dark side if you will. The Daily Show, as always, is onto the main story about the platinumming of the news, as Samantha Bee so well and warmly described it not long ago.
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