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The Sickening Praise for 'The Daily Show'
As corporate media coverage of the presidential race becomes even more notably stingy with intrepid journalism, the mainstream press enthusiasm for "The Daily Show" seems more cloying than ever.
The pattern is now a routine feature of the media landscape: "The Daily Show" gets laudatory attention from major news organizations, where countless journalists watch like shackled prisoners in awe of Superman.
Look -- up in the media sky -- it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Jon Stewart!
While news accounts note how many viewers hold faux "news anchor" Stewart in higher esteem as a journalist than the "real" ones at the top of the media pack, there's a sheepish quality to much of the coverage about "The Daily Show."
After all, many big-name journalists have earned their keep by describing and analyzing the embroideries of the emperor's new clothes. It blows their conformist minds to see a network program that regularly exposes right-wing rulers without a stitch.
Last month, a Sunday edition of the New York Times devoted more than two full broadsheet pages to "The Daily Show," starting with a color photo of Stewart that filled nearly half the cover page of the newspaper's "Arts & Leisure" section. The program "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," eminent Times critic Michiko Kakutani wrote.
Consider the subtexts of this passage in the story: "Mr. Stewart ... and his writers have energetically tackled the big issues of the day -- 'the stuff we find most interesting,' as he said in an interview at the show's Midtown Manhattan offices, the stuff that gives them the most 'agita,' the sometimes somber stories he refers to as his 'morning cup of sadness.' And they've done so in ways that straight news programs cannot: speaking truth to power in blunt, sometimes profane language, while using satire and playful looniness to ensure that their political analysis never becomes solemn or pretentious."
Well, OK. That says a lot about "The Daily Show." But what does it say about the "real" news media -- and especially about the most important and self-important huge media outlets that dispense news with enormous ripple effects across the media terrain?
If -- as the New York Times soberly reported in the article -- "straight news programs cannot" tackle the "big issues of the day" while "speaking truth to power," we should ask a key question: Why not?
But this is not a question that media outlets like the Times seem interested in pursuing to any depth.
Contrasts with the overwhelming bulk of corporate media are primarily drawn to underscore the uniqueness and extraordinary qualities of "The Daily Show." It's exceptional as an exception. Comedy Central's most famous program is in the spotlight, and the vast expanses of the corporate media are the arrays of darkness that make it so conspicuous. What sheds light is punched up by what blocks it.
Absent from the fawning media coverage of "The Daily Show" is evident self-awareness that the elaborate praise is a tacit form of convoluted self-loathing -- in professional terms anyway -- among the likes of, say, Times journalists. Their own media institution is so circumscribed and so lumbering in its daily incarnation that they're apt to be amazed and envious at the incisively documented presentations on "The Daily Show."
That's the way it goes in medialand. What isn't conspicuous is apt to be insidious. The tick-tock of U.S. media hypnosis may be passably good at looking back -- reexamining some aspects of propaganda for the Iraq invasion, for instance, years after it occurs -- while now helping to mesmerize the country into escalation of the war in Afghanistan. But let's not quibble. Everybody has a job to do.
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84 Comments so far
Show AllGee, is Mr. Solomon jealous. Maybe its because Jon Stewart is far more entertaining that Mr. Solomon could ever dream of being.
What did the Daily Show do to piss him off? Did they make a joke about his candidate (Obama) that he didn't like. BTW, I notice CD still prints Mr. Solomon's pieces without the acknowledgement that he was an Obama delegate at the convention.
Overall, Jon Stewart has done a wonderful job with comedy of the same sort of stuff that Mr. Solomon has tried to do with boring, ponderous seriousness. A good lesson for all. Too bad Mr. Solomon has his skirts all twisted up in a knot over someone else's success.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Pretty sure you missed the point, Samson. Anyway, it's hypocritical to be picking on Solomon's work in retaliation for your (mistaken) perception that he's picking on Stewart, no?
Agreed.
Sampson, the message in Solomon's post isn't that Stewart doesn't deserve acclaim, just that the acclaim is coming from the wrong sources and for the wrong reasons... and is destructive.
Stewart offers fine comedy, satire, opinion, editorial, insight and rage... but he isn't the "source" of news. He may "rereport" at times, but always with a personal slant. As far as suggesting that his show fulfills the traditional role of real investigative reporting based solely on facts... no.
The NY Times piece that Solomon points to is more of an admission of total failure of corporate MSM, to live up to the standards to which we have held a free press... and its total capitulation of its traditional role as watchdog over greed, corruption, lies and government propaganda.
It's not that Stewart doesn't deserve credit for his "show", it just that it's sad... and very dangerous, that the state of one of our most valued Constitutional protections has fallen and been rendered ineffectual.
That so many now turn to Stewart and his ilk as an alternative to the MSM lies of commission and omission, is a tragedy... and those who are real professionals know it. That they also promote Stewart as a source of news is self-flagellation at best and at worst, an admission of defeat.
The corporate press/broadcast news no longer serves the public's interests. Stewart laughs about it and makes millions... and gets free MSM advertising. Smart guy.
oooops... should have read down... so many others said it better. Sorry for the redundancy.
Guess you missed the prominent mug shot CD had of Solomon on its home page throughout the entire week of the DNC, samson. Nor is it any secret that he was a delegate. And neither did that stop Solomon from pushing a progressive agenda, nor being critical of mainstream, pro-war corpo-Dems.
Clearly you need to read the piece again. He's not critical of the Daily Show at all. He's critical of the timid, fawning MSM that heaps praise on Stewart for doing THEIR job.
Right ! Solomon is absolutely not criticizing Stewart or his show.
I like this statement: "It blows their conformist minds to see a network program that regularly exposes right-wing rulers without a stitch."
I also like that Solomon likens the MSM journalists to "shackled prisoners". :-)
Huh? Norman Solomon WAS a respected progressive. Now, by throwing his support to Obama, a mainstream, pro-war (and pro-death penalty, APAC, drug war, telecom spying, etc.) Corpo-Dem, he has himself become a mainstream, pro-war Corpo-Dem. He will push "a progressive agenda" only as far as the voting booth, where he dumps it in the trash. Pox on him. He's a sellout.
I don't buy your analysis. I think if you asked Solomon himself, or any other progressive backing his candidacy, they'd tell you that AFTER he's elected (which at this point, is not a foregone conclusion), THEN it will be imperative for progressives to REALLY put on the full court press to push the incoming Administration in our direction.
So that's the idea anyway. And I'm not personally trying to proselytize here, bidad. It's apparent you'll be voting a 3rd party ticket. More power to ya. I haven't decide yet myself. Could be Obama or Nader. I'll try to vote strategically. Ideally, I'd like to see Obama get in, and see Nader garner the 5% threshold to qualify for federal matching funds in the next election cycle. That scenario would also further put pressure on Obama to move left.
Jon Stewart just never makes me laugh. Stephen Colbert does.
They both make me laugh. Colbert makes me think.
Joe
I feel just the opposite. To each his own, I guess. Lately on the CR, the laughter seems almost "canned". They laugh at everything he says and does. I like them both/watch them both. They were esp. necessary during the conventions, when they werew about the only thin gthat could help me unwind enough to sleep!
I'm like you, Colbert doesn't do it for me. I don't enjoy watching him bait his interview subjects. Watching people react to his outrageous questions and behavior just isn't funny to me. It's like dumping a bucket of crap on them.
How about an alternate title?
"The sickening lack of any reason to praise the news Media, except for the one show that turns everything into a joke so that it's allowed to be heard".
I admit it's a bit long.
I like that! I think it sums up Solomon's points.
People, read the article before you automatically judge the content.
I like that! I think it sums up Solomon's points.
People, we need to read the article before we automatically judge the content.
The reason that praise for the DS is sickening has nothing to do with the DS, but everything to do with the contemptable MSM. The article is full of criticism for the rest of the media, but samson sees only a condemnation of the DS; strange.
[If -- as the New York Times soberly reported in the article -- "straight news programs cannot" tackle the "big issues of the day" while "speaking truth to power," we should ask a key question: Why not?
But this is not a question that media outlets like the Times seem interested in pursuing to any depth.]
He doesn't answer why the nyt doesn't pursue this question in depth, but a reasonable person could say that the advertisers who keep the nyt running have vetoed any such story. The people are not to be informed about their naked emperors.
I agree. I would add that The New York Times does not want to disturb the universe of their well-heeled readership whose shopping is essential to the advertising revenue.
Joe
The success of The Daily Show is directly related to the abdication of responsibility and the corporatization and federalization of the "news media." Jon Stewart stepped in and filled the void. If the press were actually doing their job people wouldn't be relying on The Daily Show to be one of the few mainstream media productions that actually calls out the Bushies et al.
Perhaps the attention Jon Stewart is receiving is a way the press can indirectly support Stewart in naming the corruption of the government?
NYTimes pontificates that "straight news programs cannot" tackle the "big issues of the day" while "speaking truth to power".
How about simply investigating and reporting the big issues of the day in a timely way instead of burying or blocking out significant facts? Then way after the moment when the information could have made a difference, a self-important but obfuscatory partial report may finally appear.
How about reporting on peace fairs and peace marches in which thousands take time out from their busy days to try and help our country? Instead they are deliberately blocked out, buried in small articles deep in the paper, belittled with snide comments. They will tsk tsk about some problem in New York, but never reveal the contracts and contractors behind the problem.
The situations today are so egregious that simply reporting the facts would be "speaking truth to power" enough.
I cancelled my subscription to the NYT after they reported on the Washington Press Club meeting without mention of the most historic moment, Stephen Colbert's devastating in your face take-down of the press. They replied to my complaint (and evidently many others) saying that there was no room in the paper to mention it. They reported the unfunny Bush double and everything else. Many sections, page after page of soft lifestyle chatter and of ads for luxury goods, and no room for the Colbert talk. Ridiculous. It was censorship.
Joe
Jon Stewart is not one of us. He is idealogically main stream, ruling class. To have politicians and journalists roasted and rideculed however is refreshing though. My complaint with the show is when they PILE ON individuals that deserve respect. Kucinich and Chavez come to mind. Sometimes funny and sometimes lame. I'll continue to watch it.
Thanks to everyone for clearing up the mistaken assumption that Solomon was criticizing the Daily Show.
Having said that, I find the whole comparison of DS to traditional Media to be seriously depressing. What Stewart and his team do is poke their fingers in the eye of establishment politicians; this does not substitute for the media's job. The media does news. Satirists do satire, which is illuminating, but not especially informative.
The real disconnect for me is how anyone ... I mean anyone, can mistake satire for political analysis. The Daily Show does not take over the job of the media in so far as the Media’s job is not to make fun of politics and politicians, but to root out the facts and truth in politics. Stewart doesn't do that. Stewart can't.
What I find negative in all this is that if indeed we do have a generation that believes the Daily Show provides them with reliable political analysis, what must politics mean to them? The Daily Show would be a great addition to a vibrant media, but when it's the only credible voice, I fear it will only serve to teach that generation to be cynical.
Sorry but I have to disagree. Stewart's piece recently that showed right wing blowhards contradicting themselves in their own words was one of the best pieces of investigative JOURNALISM I have seen in a long time. And yes it does rise to the level of journalism when you are using empirical evidence and doing research IMO.. Hint that one piece probably got more people thinking about neo-con hypocrisy than all of CDs essays have done in it's entire existence. Yes he still is corporate and criticizes Chavez too much, OTH I think his show IS informative to millions and might be the only thing to save us from the creationist ignoramus Palin.
He is basically a comedian, and Chavez really does some funny stuff which is easy to lampoon. He points out flaws in left-wing rhetoric and policies as well as right, so he comes across with an air of fairness, although he is clearly not a right-winger. Back in 2000 I first heard about Halliburton from the DS; it was his show which got me more inquisitive about politics and policies. I wouldn't be here without Jon Stewart, so send your complaints to him!
If there is no analysis, at least rudimentary, there is no satire. Satire is informative, the more subtle it becomes the deeper the analysis. And "rooting out facts and truth in politics." is not the sole responsibility of "journalists." There are writers who are published on a regular basis in hundreds of publications that do 'political analysis," who would laugh or cringe at the suggestion they are "journalists." Gore Vidal comes to mind.
Your final, "...fear...to teach that generation to be cynical." is a summation that is not supported by what you preceded it with. Do you presume that viewers of the 'Daily Show' do not read political analysis, or even that they are not educated enough to do their own? It is a citizen's responsibility to read what is available and be able to separate the 'chafe from the wheat.' That in itself should provide some optimism. For what that is worth. The "Daily Show's" popularity stems from the truth people have determined on their own and can only find a supporting intellect there in that media.
Remember too the role of the court jester.
Analysis is great, and needed, but it is also a matter of interpretation.
It seems so obvious.....that if mainstream journalists were doing their job no one would be heaping praise on a comedian. Since Jon's show is one of the very, very few places on tv where some of our own political sentiments can be heard, then he becomes our news anchor.
Oakknot
AquarianEye, I completely relate to what you say; I try to watch DS as often as I can, if for no other reason than to catch their "headlines". He speaks to us all.
The crazier the US government gets, the easier it is for comics such as Stewart. Nevertheless he does an excellent job of it. Of course as crazy as the US government is, it should be like shooting fish in a barrel for honest journalists.
I agree that the title is not “a propos”; Stewart is deserving of praise as an entertainer. Media insiders especially appreciate that “he gets it” he seems to know what is really going on.
However, the people who play reporters on tv, have betrayed their viewers, and that IS sickening. Just because they admire Stewart doesn’t mean they can morally abdicate their responsibilities to their fellow citizens.
Lighten up! If anything, we need comedy and satire to lighten our hearts. I don't watch the Daily Show, but I have seen it, and I don't get the sense that Stewart takes himself seriously, any more than Jerry Springer does; it's everybody else that imparts so much significance to his show. Why is that? Maybe because the mainstream "news" is so unsatisfying and irrelevant?
Dave
http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/
If it takes the court jester to say the Emperor in Chief wears no clothes then so be it. Normon Solomon is indicting the mainstream media due to the immense popularity of The Daily Show. He rightfully sees no fault with the show but argues that it speaks volumes about the mainstream media's complicity with power. He was ultimately criticizing the news organs that sycophantically are praising The Daily Show for the news that their own media outlets distort, ignore or suppress.
Jon Stewart said it best himself when he was interviewed by Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala. He said, "Stop hurting America. You're hurting America with your partisan hackery," or something to that effect.
Very well said.
Is Norm confused? Should Norm be complaining about the MSM? The main stream media has failed to expose either candidate for the corporate shills they are.
Since Norm is a supporter (Democratic delegate at the convension) of one of the corporate shills (Mr. Obama), should not Norm be praising the MSM for the "fine job" they are doing reporting the "news?"
His words "...lets not quibble. Everybody has a job to do."
Besides, hasn't Solomon just put a question mark on the validity of your hyperbole?
Absent from the fawning media coverage of "The Daily Show" is evident self-awareness that the elaborate praise is a tacit form of convoluted self-loathing -- in professional terms anyway -- among the likes of, say, Times journalists.
Most of the voters in this country (both living and dead) who are about to make McCain president don't watch The Daily Show. John Stewart, his writers and those who do watch the program are not going to tip the election in Obama's favor. If The Daily Show had that much political and cultural power it would immediately be taken off the air. Or John Stewart would be run down and killed crossing the street and his writers would mysteriously disappear. No one is going to be allowed to stop the vampires from drinking our blood. So The New York Tombs can pat itself on the back and wink at us all while they call themselves whores and grave robbers. Big deal! Just keep the cash coming in. The cash is ALL that matters. Here's a scene from the movie "Chinatown" in which Jack Nicholson portrays every powerless political progressive in this country and John Huston plays George Wanker Bush and John McCain rolled into one:
NICHOLSON: How much are you worth . . . 10 million?
HUSTON: Oh, my, yes.
NICHOLSON: Then why are you doing this? How much better can you eat? What more can you buy that you can't already afford?
HUSTON: The future, Mr. Gittes . . . the future.
It is certainly not the job of a comedy show (or the msm either) to "get Obama elected". I could see how someone would think so, if they watch MSNBC much. These shows have a "left slant". But, esp. the DS, seems to be an equal opportunity criticizer. The Right just does more funny, stupid stuff. The Dems continue to put on a show of benevolence.
He's picking on the media in general, not the Daily Show?
Then what exactly sickens him about the praise?
Why not simply be sickened by the media itself?
These are your questions for whom?
This is not a classroom. Your questions do not illuminate.
Why not say what you mean? Solomon's intent is clear. Without childish vitrolic diction, so enamored here, he told you his distaste for MSM.
Who are your questions for? Or are you so certain that yur opinions are valid that yu never question?
He's picking on the media in general, not the Daily Show?
Then what exactly sickens him about the praise?
Why not simply be sickened by the media itself?
If you've seen the book "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents AMERICA", you'll know that Stewart himself reserves his most vociferous and caustic condemnation for the Bush failures at the feet of a compliant and lap-dog press. If you recall the celebrated "Crossfire" interview with Stewart, he famously lambasted the press for lying down on the job as our Constitution was crushed under Cheney's jackboot. Solomon follows suit here, though not nearly as angrily.
Norman Solomon is saying that MSM feels bad about the lousy job they do in reporting the news, and that's why they like John Stewart.
If they feel so bad about the lousy job they do, why were they so pissed at Stephen Colbert's great satire at the National Press Club? The assembled press people were not laughing, although their dates seemed to be.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879
HI,
The MSM is non-existent. We have Fox. That is Fascist propaganda. The NBC (GE) & related cable shows. They support the war machine which now takes 1 trillion a year from the taxpayers and pours it into the war machine. GE gets a big peace of this pie. They fired there leading cable personality in Donahue at the outset of the Iraq invasion because he was the only voice on cable against the war. ABC-Disney which is the voice of the CIA-putting forth the myth that Iraq was behind the Anthrax killings for instance. Disney want a fascist government to insure that the copyright law is extended every 25 years to protect the mouse. The constitution gives the power of copyright to the congress to help individuals not corporations. CBS which used to have news has gone totally entertainment and botched the entire BUSH as deserter story because they did not spend money to research it properly. Time Warner (CNN) has become Fox want to be. And you never find FSTV or LINK on any of their cable outlets. Clear Channel is now owned by Mitt Romney. The Christian station spew venom through out the land on radio and TV. What mainstream media is there? ANd don't forget the New York media (TImes, New Yorker (which led the assault on Obama this summer) etc. They are consistently and radically pro Israel. Their anti-Obama attacks have come from the underground campaign by HRC and McCain to promote Obama as a Muslim. They wanted HRC and are after Obama for beating her. John Stewart exposes the hypocrisy of the media in a way which promotes liberalism. That is why the media will never do what he does and they pretend to admire him.
I don't have cable TV, so I've only seen Stewart and TDS in bits and pieces.
Solomon's loathing and exasperation towards the corporate media arises from their collectively "loving" TDS and thereby implicitly deflecting, denying, and trivializing the scandalous and heinous media irresponsibility that TDS lampoons; it's laughing AT them, but they're laughing WITH its laughing at them. I can see why Solomon is irked.
But something else occurs to me after skimming the comments: the Sixties phrase "raising consciousness" comes to mind.
Once upon a time, "serious" news reporting was the means of raising public consciousness of political and social issues. Now the corporate media is more about UNCONSCIOUSNESS raising, or consciousness-lowering, if you prefer.
Paradoxically, as one of the commenters above noted, it seems as if TDS and Colbert provide such consciousness-raising as the corporate mass media offers. One might say they've capitalized on a kind of "it's funny because it's true" concept.
And this relates to the ambivalence in Solomon's article and the comments; fans can honestly argue that TDS/Colbert are a "saving grace"; critics can argue with equal validity that the very success of these shows in the vacuum of straightforward (non-satirical) consciousness-raising is a sign of a deep intellectual and cultural malaise.
In any case, Lewis Black gets a big thumbs-up.
Daily sorry had to stop watching him he is CNN with a laugh track as someone else said the last time CD did a story about Daily.
Want to have real fun go to the CBC postings They get sometimes over 1700 postings on a story not 50 or so that looks like the average on CD. That is the same postings by the same people over and over.
www.CBC.ca/news. Real easy to sign up
Stewart, Colbert and the crew deserve kudos for exposing the superficiality of our so called news coverage at the very least. Simply the fact that a fake news comedy show gets it right more often than the MSM 'hardballers' should give us all pause. The fact that Mr Solomon's own NY Times failed miserably at it's responsibility to act as the fourth estate and instead acted as a cheerleader for the Bush administration in it's build up for the invasion and occupation of Iraq hardly puts him in a blameless judicial seat to criticize the institution to which he belongs. I do however, applaud any efforts for the journalistic community to begin to police itself and start giving us substance instead of corral carpet. But what's the major subject of all the talking heads this morning?McCain made a big deal out of Obama's use of the phrase 'lipstick on a pig' and his retort.Now is this really an issue in a country with GIs deployed under fire in two countries and an economy in shambles? All I ask from the news media is real and responsible journalism. Isn't that your job?
Support your local organic family farmers
Ditto.
Remember when Rick Mercer was still on 22 Minutes and how he used to introduce it as the best watched News show in Canada.
samson -- "Gee, is Mr. Solomon jealous."
Do you have reading comprehension issues or is it me ? What in the above article makes you think Solomon is criticizing The Daily Show ? Ah well ... its CD ... people take a look at the headline and proceed to vomit on the board without reading the article.
I can't see why we criticise the MSM.
"Navy Seals ROCK!" - CBS Evening News Anchor Katherine A. Couric
Last week The Daily Show's fictitious Alaska correspondent, Rob Riggle said, "I want a leader I can relate to, who's like me, or worse."
The reason a line like that resonates and is funny, is because it's true.
I think many among us want to be catered to.
We channel surf past examination of important issues, but our attention is peaked when the media delivers a candidate who doesn't seem glaringly more intelligent than us, whom we think we'd like to have a beer with, or who has hobbies we like to imagine ourselves engaging in, even if we'd never actually get up off the couch to go shoot a moose.
Stewart and Colbert lampoon this aspect of America.
The MSM caters to it.
Drift wrote,
"I don't buy your analysis. I think if you asked Solomon himself, or any other progressive backing his candidacy, they'd tell you that AFTER he's elected (which at this point, is not a foregone conclusion), THEN it will be imperative for progressives to REALLY put on the full court press to push the incoming Administration in our direction."
Well, this is a joke worthy of the Daily show. If you can't pressure a candidate before the election (when they need your vote), how will you pressure them after the election, when they won't need anything from you for four years? "Sir, you had best withdraw from Iraq this instant, or I will be forced to write more letters and plan a parade".
About Rob Riggle, he's a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, public affairs division, and he served in Afghanistan and Kosovo. What a welcome addition to the Daily Show! Their very own ""message force multiplier".
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20358198/
If the MSM would play the clips of every politician repeating talking points and point out the lies and contradictions like Stewart and Colbert they would have to actually work to find things to be funny about.
And the media might be respected just a little. The vast majority can't even say these words, "President Bush lied." , even when everybody knows this is a frequent occurrence.
McCain and Palin have been consistently lying even after corrected in recent days. Try this teaser for the msm news, "Palin repeats lies again, video after these messages."