This clip is rather old, but it is a great example of the changing nature of what is considered "news."
What I found most interesting about this clip, if you managed to make it all the way through, was that it really did a good job of emphasizing the lack of serious journalism in the media today. The underlying point Stewart was trying to make was that the media today does not really seek out the truth, rather they simply propagate the same information that is given to them.
We learned in class about how the media today is largely profit driven. This has led to a decline in investigative journalism, which is costly in both time and money, and a move towards opinion-based journalism where either one commentator states their opinion, or two or more people debate an issue. This has also led towards more coverage of the "horse race" aspects of politics rather than actually investigating closely what the politicians or politicians are actually saying.
Even though this clip came out before I started taking this class, when I first watched it I was appalled at the lack of serious journalism being done. As Stewart pointed out rather sarcastically, fact checking is supposed to be the function of news. In the past many great journalists made a name for themselves by investigating the statements and actions of politicians. Even the Watergate Scandal was broken because of the investigative journalism efforts of Carl Bernstein, who at the time was a young reporter for the Washington Post.
I think this clip is also important because it further illustrates how it has become the job of Comedy Central to hold the media accountable. The reason John Stewart has become the most trusted journalist in America is because he is brave enough to at least hold the media accountable for their mistakes. I think his success should also illustrate to the media that there is actually room for responsible journalism today, and that people really do want to watch news that investigates the truth, rather than just acting as a forum for politicians to disseminate false or misleading information.
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