America is quite different from many other countries when it comes to the media. For many decades, the news people used to only present the news and allowed the viewer to decide for himself how he felt about it. In most other countries, that objective system remains in place and allows people to be better informed. This system has been replaced in America by media sensationalism and Jon Stewart has had enough.
With the presidential election being only a couple of weeks away, naturally the media talks about the candidates incessantly. Politics is the word of the day. Each candidate speaking to groups of people of what they will do to improve America's future and fix the problems that currently affect the people. CNN, a cable news channel that broadcasts 24 hours a day, doesn't just broadcast news.
One of its most popular shows is a debate program called Crossfire. On this program, the right and left "debate" back and forth the issues in politics. They analyze and spin whatever gaffes their respective candidates and parties make. The right is represented by Bob Novak and Tucker Carlson while the left is represented by Paul Begala and James Carville. They have a variety of guests on where they can "debate" with them.
I watch this program almost every single day because it's a political version of Jerry Springer. Nothing is ever debated on this show. The hosts argue and yell at one another, talk over their guests, bushwhack their guests, talk about the least important issues possible, make outrageous claims, and most importantly, they never resolved anything on their show.
Jon Stewart, the anchor of the Comedy Central broadcast news spoof the Daily Show, appeared on the program this past Friday. Jon Stewart and his program are quite successful having just won an Emmy and currently have the #1 selling book on the New York Times Best Seller List. He has been a critic of CNN and Crossfire in the past but no one could have expected what would happen on the program.
Stewart was introduced as being either the funniest smart man or the smartest funny man on television. They thought he would come out, plug his book, crack a few jokes, and be the funny man. Instead, they found someone who used the opportunity to be honest about the sad state the media was in. As the 14 minute segment dragged on, it only got worse. It was both beautiful and painful to watch.
Stewart started off by asking if they could all just get along. He pointed out that the people of CNN could do so much for the people of this country by calling politicians on their bullshit and really informing the people. Instead, what they actually provide is political theatre. Stewart felt that the media was in fact "hurting America."
The hosts wouldn't actually answer any of Stewart's questions or respond to his challenges. They accused him of being soft on his political guests(Kerry actually appeared on The Daily Show) and that there wasn't a difference between the two programs. Stewart pointed out that his program is in fact on Comedy Central and the program that leads into his is puppets making crank phone calls.
Most of the dialog was between Carslon and Stewart. Carlson was practically pleading with Stewart to be funny. Stewart responded with, "I'm not your monkey." Then Carslon put up a graphic of the questions that Stewart asked Kerry on his show. Why did Carlson have a graphic of this? Was he going to in fact bushwhack Stewart on Crossfire even if things had gone according to plan?
Things got so heated that at one point Stewart actually called Carlson a dick. The hosts of Crossfire were totally out of their element with this wise guest. When they tried to counter his questions and statements with their own, Carlson asked about the dildo incident involving Bill O'Reilly. Stewart looked really sad when they did this because they were only proving his point about the sad state of the media in this country.
Recently, there were three presidential debates and a single vice presidential debate. All of them were mindnumbingly boring because all of the candidates with the exception of John Edwards have the charisma of a rotting corpse. Kerry is funny looking, stuffy, longwinded, and just sucks the energy out of a room. Bush is incapable of speaking publicly without giving the impression that he has had some sort of head injury.
In the most recent debate, the candidates pretty much answered the same questions with the same answers. Nothing new happened until the moderator asked this one question: "Do you think that homosexuality is a choice?"
Bush answered by saying that he just didn't know. However, he felt that people shouldn't be discriminated against. Kerry responded by saying that Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian and that she would not say it was a choice. All three people grading the debate for CNN, Novak, Begala, and comedienne Jessi Klein from Comedy Central felt that Kerry shouldn't have done that. They each commented on their blogs right as this happened. Kerry's comment is what the media decided to focus on.
In the days after the debate, the Cheneys expressed their outrage that their daughter was singled out by Kerry. Their offense was challenged to be shame by John Edwards' wife. The media couldn't stop talking about it. It was on Crossfire, Hardball, Scarborough, and all the other shows.
This unnecessary but ultimately insignificant comment was taking precedence on the news stations over more pressing issues such as: the war, the economy, the rising costs of healthcare, the deficit, etc.
This is exactly what Jon Stewart was talking about. Rather than talk about the news, the media in the U.S. focuses on something insignificant and sensationalizes it. Mary Cheney's sexual preference is important to no one. The fact that the presidential election is about two weeks from now and the media chose to focus on this is rather disheartening. Stewart chose their forum to bring about change and we can only hope that it comes soon enough. Stewart 2008 does have a nice ring to it.
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