KimDebatePaper1

KimDebatePaper1 Timothy Kim 10/18/2011 Sustainability Problems

Word Count: 1712

//Does comedy news enhance political and environmental literacy?//

In history, the media played a huge role in educating and informing the people. In fact, most adult who is not in education system receive most their new information from media. Today, people receive a wide range of information from various sources that are provided by internet. The popularity and reliability of comedy news has been increasing over past decade since the rise of internet media took the large amount of viewers from the print media and TV networks. Comedy news is more than a trend and begins to transform the media. As more people are viewing comedy news, people must ask does comedy news enhance political and environmental literacy. People must measure how much credible and diverse information is provided by comedy news. Most importantly, people, who is a major stakeholders of media influences, must evaluate the information provided by comedy news and its educational impact on themselves. Level of political bias and environmental concerns of the people who are creating comedy news must be addressed in order to clearly examine the reliability of comedy news.

The New York Magazine article, “America is a Joke”, is written by Chris Smith and published on September 12, 2010. The article focuses on Jon Stewart and his The Daily Show to examine positive influences of the show. According to Smith, he claims that “Stewart made himself into the leading critic and satirist of the media-political complex.” He further argues that “[Stewart’s] comedy is counterprograming” with “a political purpose.” With 1.8 million viewers each night, the show definitely has cultural influence and for that reason it tries to be an invaluable corrective. According to Stephen Colbert, the star of Colbert Report, he describes the Stewart’s philosophy on joke that “[Stewart] encouraged everyone to have a point of view” and “there had to be a thought behind every joke.” The creators of the comedy show attempts to address the issues to as wide range of people as possible. Stewart feels that the media is not taking their job seriously that media people’s lack of passion for moral or editorial authority always struck him as weird. Smith supports him by stating that “his willingness to call bullshit to the face of the bullshitters” is the major difference between Stewart and an average media person. While making fun of politicians, the White House, and political events, the comedy news also attempts to do more than providing an entertainment. Stewart argues that “comedy is harder than what [media people] do” since people making the comedy news “have to process things in a manner that’s more thoughtful.” Since his hope, “the legitimate news media will get its act together and become a resolute force for truth and good government,” doesn’t seem to happen immediately, he forces the comedy news to fulfill their responsibility. In conversation with Smith, Stewart describes him as “soil enrichers” so “[he] can add a little fertilizer to the soil so that real people can come along and grow things.” Although Stewart doesn’t represent all comedy news, it is clear from his case that the comedy news is determined to enhance political and environmental literacy.1

Stewart’s job, the comedian, seems to be a giant hole in the argument of the article. Stewart himself states that “[he’s] not provocateurs” and “[he’s] not activists.” He explains that “the nice thing about being a comedian is never having a full belief in [himself] to know the answer” and “it’s why [he doesn’t] lead a lot of marches.” Glenn Beck, the Fox News star, believes that even Stewart has built an enviable political base, he is just a showman in entertainment business. Beck also comments that “he takes things out of context and is more interested in being funny than trying to actually understand the key messages in [the] show.” Although the staff writers of The Daily Show know what “Americans love” and they are best at addressing them, it seems like there is possibility where they can be in a trap providing viewers what they want instead of providing them what they should know. Bottom line, comedy news is a form of entertainment where people are expecting it to be funny. Stewart knows his role as a comedian and the staff writers know how to please the audience.2 A short video clip of Fox News’ //Fox & Friends// that was aired in June 28, 2011 well criticized Jon Stewart and his comedian behavior. It was necessary for Fox News to contribute a section of //Fox & Friends// to discuss Stewart since he challenged that the Fox News most consistently misinformed the viewers. The anchors of the show clearly responded to how Stewart had made daily bias towards Fox News in his show. They showed the clip of Stewart reasoning that “I make fun of conservatives or Republicans because I am liberal partisan ideologue, because I make fun of liberals or Democrats because I want, as part of my brilliant and cynic strategy, to maintain enough credibility to continue making fun of conservatives and Republicans.” Stewart clearly stated that in order to keep his show rolling, he had to continuously make fun of them. Then anchors brought in the guest Steven Crowder, who is a comedian and Fox News contributor, to ask if Stewart is playing a fair game against the conservative comedians. Crowder spoke out for conservative people in the media industry that they are minority and have to deal with whole industry that consists of most people in the left side of the spectrum. Crowder also revealed the e-mail that he received from the Daily Shows after he made fun of anti-conservatives that states following: “On the conservative front, we never book conservative pundits… We stick with conservative politicians, sometimes high-profile news anchors, and sometimes religious leaders.” The e-mail clearly showed Daily Show favoritism towards far side from conservatives. Although Crowder’s intention was not to attack Stewart, he wanted to let people know what conservative people in the industry have to go through in their daily working places. He argued that when Stewart consistently mention Fox News as untrustworthy media, Stewart is not trying to be funny anymore, Stewart is sending propaganda message to the viewers. He also argued that Stewart must set a clear narrative and be careful how to present his jokes. He states that “[Stewart] is a bully… he only picks a fight that he knows that he can win it.” He explained that when victims of Stewart’s jokes try to fight back, Stewart puts a comedian mask on and plays winner jokes and that’s only reason he engages Fox News to set a fight. The anchors also showed the clip of Stewart making fun of Herman Cain that clearly illustrates his bias towards conservatives. Throughout the show, the anchors keep in mind that Jon Stewart is just a comedian.3

Although the video clip was very short to spot any holes in the argument, the copy of e-mail Crowder didn’t explain the context in depth. He mentioned that he had to bring it up and consulted with Governor Huckabee on how conservatives are disadvantage in media industry. His explanation and reasoning weren’t clear. The anchors also criticized how Stewart’s action didn’t match his comment that he is not an activist and just a comedian. The criticism didn’t acknowledge that Stewart is just throwing ideas out but never led people to take action. People were voluntarily engaged with Stewart’s jokes and became activists to speak out about the issues. It seemed like Stewart knows what he is capable of doing as a comedian.

The New York Times article, “In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow”, is written by Bill Carter and Brain Stelter and published on December 26, 2010. This article specifically looks at the role of the Daily Show and Jon Stewart on the 9/11 Bill. The article praises Stewart as Edward R. Murrow, who turned public opinion against the excesses of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Stewart played a huge role in passing the bill by creating the momentum through hosting 9/11 first responders in his show and letting the public know about the Republicans who were blocking the bill. Eric Ortner, a former ABC News senior producer, expressed dismay that Stewart had been virtually alone in this movement since the press wasn’t there when it needed the most. Robert J. Thompson, a professor of television at Syracuse University, argues that “comedy on television, more than journalism on television, may be the most effective outlet for stirring debate and effecting change in public policy.” He further argues that “comedy has the potential to have an important role in framing the way we think about civic life.”4 The limited resource constrained me to only focus on Jon Stewart on my paper. Although I respect all comedians, especially, Jon Stewart, for their uneasy jobs, I must say that comedy news, in general, does not enhance political and environmental literacy. Comedy news does its best job to let people know what’s going around the world and the hot issues they need to concern about. A comedian, like Jon Stewart, clearly took more responsibility to educate and inform the people. But most comedy news clearly sets a boundary to entertain the viewers. It is the program directors and stars to decide if they want to pursue more than entertainment. Saturday Night Live show features a corner called Second Hand News that educates viewers the importance of getting the information from credible source. Most comedy news may address political and environmental literacy, but they often do not pursue to enhance it. Most comedy news refuses to be accountable and responsible for what they said since they claimed that it was just a joke.

References Cited: 1. Smith, Chris. "America is a Joke." //nymag.com//. New York Magazine, 12/9/2010. Web. 17 Oct 2011. <[]>. 2. Smith, Chris. "America is a Joke." //nymag.com//. New York Magazine, 12/9/2010. Web. 17 Oct 2011. <[]>. 3. "Fox’s Crowder: John Stewart is A Bully". Fox News’. //Fox & Friends//. Media Matters for America, 6/28/2011. Web. 17 Oct 2011. <[]> 4. Carter, Bill and Brian Stelter. “In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow”. The New York Times. 12/26/2010. Web 17 Oct 2011. []