The Daily Show: Insightful Commentary or Lowering the Standard
 

I'm wondering what your opinion of the Daily Show is. I happen to enjoy the show but I'm wondering if its corrupted the national dialouge.

I feel as though thoughtful exchanges has decresed while snarky one-liners that are more obviously clever, than funny have increased. I think its become harder to have a debate of ideas with most folks more interested in getting the zinger in that actually coming to the root of something.

Is the Daily Show to blame? Am I out of line? Has this always been around? Is there another source to point fingers at?

Discuss.

I fall into the category that's more interested in comedic value than political value when it comes to political shows airing on a comedy channel.
I both agree and disagree with political points being raised on the Daily Show, but I don't really look at the show as any type of source material to fuel my internal fires regarding politics.
It's funny, I laugh, I go on with my life.

Fox News and MSNBC have been just as guilty of it for just as long, but the difference is they're supposed to be serious journalists.

If you consider The Daily Show your news source, than that's your problem. It's a comedy show, and it's funny. That's all that should matter. God forbid these Stewart and Colbert guys have the nerve to poke fun at the ever so pompous world of politics.

Political satire has always existed, but now overly self serious douchebags are acting like it's total blasphemy.

It's ridiculous.

Stewart and Colbert don't try to be real journalists, but they at least invite intelligent guests onto their programs every now and then, that's more than I can say for anyone else. Like this Mark Levin idiot whom FoxNews are pretty much in love with at the moment.

But you wouldn't say that you've experienced a "snarkification" (coined!) of issues?

i think i got past the stage where i'd consider the Daily Show a legitimate news source in seventh grade. now it's just more of a contest to see how quickly i groan.

I used to think Daily Show was funny, then I saw Colbert Report. It's overly liberal though, and never offers any sort of unbiased coverage.

It's a comedy show.

Since when is comedy ever supposed to be unbiased?

If you're expecting serious journalism from shows that air right alongside a cartoon which features characters like a pot smoking towel and an anthropomorphic piece of fecal matter in a Santa hat, then you have problems you need to deal with.

I summed that all up in my response to the OP.
We need an "I agree" smiley so people can just stop typing things.

Right so, the question wasn't "is it bias" it's "is it lowering the civil discourse."

And by the by, The Daily Show often hides behind it "being a comedy show" but much like books and music, once its out there (broadcast in this sense) the creator no longer gets to determine what it is.

If its watched as a news source, its a news source. It is the viewers source for news.

Why is it the fault of the creators if some dumbasses think it's a serious news source?

^^^
It's pretty much like Darkest Hour getting all his current world news from MB.

You can't blame media for people being idiots. The idea of TV shows "snarkifying" things is on par with blaming Mortal Kombat for violent youths.

Its not their fault. But they can't determine what the creation is once its out there.

I think they were probably idiots prior to Jon Stewart taking over. I'm suggesting this ushered in a new era of response that lacked any real thought and also (and this is what i think the show really did) made "clever" responses more appropriate.

I think pre-DS people just wouldn't have cared enough, or had known enough to respond. Now because their marketed to with juxtaposing news clips in little film vignette that these people feel not only that they can say something, but that their response either means something or their going to change peoples opinions.

Based off of that paragraph, which people are you referring to? guests that go on the show or newscasters in general? or are you talking about viewers of the show?

The viewers.

yeah but you do know that the viewers are mostly college aged people right? I like the effect the show has on its viewers will the intended effect. It should get the viewers interested enough in a topic they didn't know about to actually go and research it outside of the show instead of just quoting lines they heard on the show.

Didn't read the thread [ha] but you have to just respect it for what it's worth. It's on a comedy channel, where it's idea is to have people laugh and get them to turn in. If you use it as an actual news source that's slightly pathetic.

That said, I do believe it is part of the reasoning as to why the potus position is not put in nearly the high respect and regard it deserves anymore. The amount of things people say about the potus in a straight disrespectful manner is disturbing and and pathetic.

That might happen for 1 out of 20. The rest just become emboldened in their snarkiness.

I have heard a lot more lines from the show in conversation then I have people with a new found interest in the political process or foreign affairs.

It's a comedy show with a specific agenda. And the idea of the thread was "Insightful Commentary or Lowering the Standard." I was agreeing with the latter.

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.

How can you even debate that it's a satire? OF COURSE it's a satire.

Comedy is supposed to have a specific agenda, observational and satirical comedy is inherently done from a subjective and simplified point of view, for it to be objective is impossible.

Yes it's geared towards young liberals, but comedy has to be geared towards somebody, it's hard to laugh at something you don't connect with or agree with in any way.

You're demanding way too much from these shows, I mean for crying out loud, I thought all the d*ck jokes made it clear enough that they're not trying to convince anyone they are serious journalists.

You can't blame the creators if people are too stupid and lazy to fact check what they hear. If you're gonna blame the creators for how some idiots end up interpreting their work. Then you should be doing your part in burning books and rock cds. Because that's what this is starting to sound like to me.

And once again. It's a show that pokes fun at the news, it's not trying to BE the news.

It's on Comedy Central, the home of Drawn Together, Mind of Mencia and Blue Collar TV, they're not trying to fool anyone into thinking it's serious politically correct journalism.

If anything, Daily Show has helped me become more politically aware, when they cover a story I'm interested in, I look it up, I check the sources, I do my research. And I'm sure a lot of people do that. If you just let stupid people spoil everything for you, THEY WIN.

Jesus Christ, get a sense of humor and just laugh at what's meant to be laughed at.

congratulations. you get it. would you like a gold star to go along with that?

the question at hand is not whether or not YOU get the daily show but whether or not the general public does. is it actually fostering worthwhile public political discussion or dumbing it down?

to some people the fact that any sort of discourse is taking place is a victory and from that regard the shows are effective. for anyone with a clue about what's going on talking to someone who gets the entirety of their political views from the daily show is like trying to teach your dog abstract math.

like it or not i think it's safe to say the amount of people who DO chose to adhere to satirical views of politics has increased in line with the ratings for those shows.

Maybe I missed something somewhere but isn't the whole point of having newspaper columnists & presenters of these opinion type magazine shows this that they ARE biased.

But you're making it out like it's their fault, as if they have some responsability for all the stupid people in the world. In that case. Everything should be put into questioning, every book ever written, ever movie ever filmed, every tv show ever broadcasted.

Lets refrain from creating any art or entertainment just to avoid stupid people misinterpreting something.

Since when does appealing to stupid people invalidate something? That should invalidate everything.

Yeah but that's not what the Daily Show is. It's a comedy program sort of similar to the Day Today except not nearly as funny.

:)

Ahhh

I was under the impression it was kind of show by an Amercian version someone like Richard Littlejohn or Jeremy Clarkson who basically tries to be funny in a pathetic attempt to bore everybody with their outdated little Englander views

who's blaming the show?

correlation does not equal causation.

just because the standard for political discussion in the public eye has diminished in line with the increase of the popularity of the daily show does necessarily mean the writers and producers of the show are responsible for the qualitative decline in political discussions.

i'm not seeing anyone but you trying to tack on any type of responsibility (or lack thereof) on the writers and producers.

tr00 dat homie, tr00 dat.

Whatever; Scoreboard Brittan

see what i mean!?!?!?!?

/thread

Daily Show made leet speak popular?

come on, you can draw the comparison. ask yourself what the original question was....

Are you asking me to give you an opinion?

No he, like me and I think swim as well, doesn't understand how my post is an example of this "snarkification" you speak of.

Was he referring to your post or the OP?

Wayfarer?

Daily Show> Day Today

Seriously.