mr dave

political satire has been around for as long as there have been politicians, as such whether or not the daily show is satire is irrelevant.

the fact that their target demographic (for marketing purposes) is high school seniors and first year university students is irrelevant.

i really do think these shows ARE lowering the standard of political discussion in the general public. there are a lot of people who recognize that it's satire yet don't bother following up with an actual factual news article. it's like the people who read the headline and infer the rest of the information based on it.

best example i can think of, a few years ago we had a provincial election (2006). one of the party leaders (a woman in her 40s) was being interviewed on the radio. she gets asked a question about where she draws her international views from. her legitimate answer - the daily show.

you could practically here the radio host's jaw hit the floor before trying to tack on some sort of response to try salvaging this political trainwreck's career. she obviously did not get elected.

it's not that the show is 'bad' but i think the way it presents itself so closely to the same way the news presents itself allows for a lot of lazy viewers to gloss over the actual details. it's as if the events and issues discussed within the show are simply plot points you can discuss with anyone out in public so long as you don't go past the surface of the issue.

it's the same logic that has morons eating fast food everyday because they figure a big mac meal is somehow healthy because there's a bit of lettuce on the burger and the fries started off as potatoes.

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