I guess most would consider The Daily Show with Jon Stewart a comedy, and possibly even a sketch, show, but I would have to say that it is just a reliable source for news as CNN and FOX. The Daily Show came on in the beginning of the decade and took America by storm. It was funny, had a good and intelligent host, and was on cable. All of these things are the recipe for a perfect long running comedic news show. I watched the February 3, 2010 edition of the long running program and I, having seen and enjoyed the show before, was expecting to learn a little and laugh often. As the assignment entails, the verb tenses and different uses of language are the things we are supposed to be commenting on, but the writing staff of the Daily Show must have been reading this assignment as they wrote the show.
In the business of television writing, it’s not too often that we find a blend of comedy, news, and good grammatical structure. The Show used the past tense in their reporting because all of the events that they were reporting on had happened the day prior. Since it is not a 24 hour-a-day news source, the stories are updated by the day, not the hour. This provides for easy verb tense dissection and a low chance of making English teachers unhappy. Also, the show being a news show, it can’t take a side on political issues (FOX, CNN, NBC…etc) and it does this by poking fun at Barack Obama’s name and then doing a story about how republicans are messing up the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.
This even form of reporting is why people tune into him every night and will continue to until he moves on to bigger and better things. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see him on NBC. I could get used to hearing, “And now…..Jon Stewart….your host of….The Tonight Show!”
I can DEFINITELY get used to the Daily Show being aired on national TV! (although that may change the nature of some of the outrageous yet true utterances made by Stewart...)
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that The Daily Show could be considered a "reliable" source, since they regurgitate real news that they could poke fun at. Then again, I wouldn't consider this a newscast, simply because it is more similar to late night shows, even though it may possibly contain more political issues.
Also, I would say Stewart is very biased on certain topics! Criticizing the President does not cancel out one's leanings and biases, in my opinion. (You can absolutely disagree.)
he absolutely criticizes everyone, but it always has a tilt to the left, but that doesnt make him any less of a newscaster. everyone differentiates.
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