Warning: Jon Stewart and Satire Undermining Society by Steve Young

[Demeter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/warning-jon-stewart-and-_b_48944.html


In his LA Times oped column Sunday ("Pope Rosie? Pray for us"), Anthony Daniels, writing under his pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple, takes popular culture and its impact on society to task.

Daniels, long a conservative voice with Manhattan Institute think-tank credentials, offers his conviction that many people take their moral and political opinions from celebrities like Bono, Rosie and Jon Stewart.

And it's ruining our ability to think seriously, to boot. Damn you, celebrities, and your insidious sucking out of our brains!

Seems the non-political famous are less credible than the reasonable team that sent the country over the Iraq precipice, or the judiciousness of the Justice Department that has given us Alberto Gonzalez's point of view of honesty, or the scientific integrity of the White House which uses non-scientific politicos to rewrite actual scientific study,, or the pundits of William Kristoldom who got it wrong a thousand times but keeps getting asked for his opinion, or... Oh, you get it. Blame for dulling the mind is the fault of those who don't know better as opposed to those who should know better and don't.....Since he did not include O'Reilly, Limbaugh, et al, as celebrities, I gather he means that they fall under the "straightforward presentations" category. If Darymple is giving a pass to the half-truths, cherry-picking distortions and outright lies that are camouflaged as straightforward news and opinion of talk radio and TV, but finds troubling the offerings that at least admit to being entertainment or "faux" news, then his presence as an authority as to what an audience should be buying morally or politically competent is in itself a deception of the public.

Steve Young is the author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (www.greatfailure.com) and his "All The News That's Fit To Spoof" appears in the LA Daily News Sunday Opinion page...to the left of O'Reilly's...really.

[xultar]

1. And lil boots giving out troop positions was....what?

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Deja vu! I guess it didn't stick the first time they ran this theory. n/t

[Larkspur]

3. I guess getting moral and political opinions from Stephen Colbert is OK

Another right wingnut fooled by the wiley Colbert.

[liberal N proud]

4. Wait a minute, Stewart is ruining our ability to think?

Isn't that what all the little sheep in the churches have done, give up the ability of thought because the minister says it's so, therefore it must be?
Jeesh!

[TlalocW]

5. Feh

It takes brains to make and understand satire (which is why Fox's comedy news show's attempt at such goes over like a lead balloon), and I believe there have been studies done that shows Stewart's audience more knowledgeable on the issues than O'Reilly's. Plus, didn't we see an upswing in young voters in the 2006 election?

If anything, the opposite is true - satire makes people laugh, but it also makes them think, and when they start thinking about the various issues the satire makes fun of, it gets them mad, and that makes them motivated. He's just upset that the "wrong people" are getting mad and motivated and not accepting the current regime.

TlalocW

[benld74]

6. Satire Definition see below

sat•ire
noun.
1.
a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
b. The branch of literature constituting such works.

2. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity

[intaglio]

7. Perhappen that Mister Daniels shud re-surch ay bit

Viewers of Jon Stewart’s show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Nielsen Media Research.

Source: MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6117542/

NEW YORK (AP) -- Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather ... and Jon Stewart?

Readers over 30 might scoff at Stewart's inclusion -- assuming they know who he is. For many under 30, the host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is, improbably, an important news source.

A poll released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 21 percent of people aged 18 to 29 cited "The Daily Show" and "Saturday Night Live" as a place where they regularly learned presidential campaign news.

Source: CNN http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/02/apontv.stewarts.stature.ap/

There are substantial differences in the knowledge levels of the audiences for different news outlets. However, there is no clear connection between news formats and what audiences know. Well-informed audiences come from cable (Daily Show/Colbert Report, O'Reilly Factor), the internet (especially major newspaper websites), broadcast TV (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer) and radio (NPR, Rush Limbaugh's program). The less informed audiences also frequent a mix of formats: broadcast television (network morning news shows, local news), cable (Fox News Channel), and the internet (online blogs where people discuss news events).

Source: Pew Research http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=319

Maybe Anthony Daniels is a fox News viewer.

[Demeter]

8. Readers: Please Don't Let Facts Get In the Way of Your Indignation!

This IS a satire on satire, in a roundabout fashion!