As I've blogged before, research shows that The Daily Show is likely to cultivate cynicism among its younger audience while threatening to displace more traditional sources of news that might be better at providing context and understanding.
But there are moments when The Daily Show rises above just humor and cynicism and provides a strong dose of counter-framing, laying bare the spin and the subterfuge of various political elites. When picked up by the mainstream press and the blogosphere, the comedy program morphs into a form of public accountability journalism.
The clip above is a golden example. On the promotion and defense of Sarah Palin, Jon Stewart splices together clips showing the extreme contradictions in statements by Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Dick Morris, and even Sarah Palin herself.
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What you call "cynicism" is better called "rightful indignation upon getting informed about the true extent of the lunacy of the Right and the spinelessness of the Corporate Media". Gotta reframe those things if you want to tell the truth, you know.
Funny.
John Stewart - I want to have your (out of wedlock) child. Thanks for this.
If you didn't see the special Friday edition of the Daily Show, it does a really good "then-and-now" comparison of McCain then vs. McCain now and opened with an even better (imho) presentation of the eerily similar language of candidate Bush in 2000 with that of candidate McCain in 2008...
If I were in charge of framing the political debate about Sarah Palin, I would bring up the spectre of Bertha Better'nyew.
Everyone knows Bertha. The mother-in-law who sniffs at your cooking and comments that she doesn't know what her son sees in That Woman. The PTA queen who tells volunteers that their brownies are woefully too dry. The co-worker who thinks everyone who doesn't go to her snake-handling church is 3vil, and doesn't hesitate to annoy the crap out of everyone. Bertha Better'nyew. She's the aging prom queen who looks other women up and down and then says, "Oh, I didn't realize you weren't ready to go out to dinner--shall we cancel the reservation?" when you're in your second-best dress because the baby spat up on the best one. The trophy wife who hands you her plastic surgeon's business card unasked, saying that you look like you could use a nip/tuck. Every woman knows Bertha, who can't resist pissing all over other women and makes every PTA meeting a big drama-fest. Lots of Bertha's bullying goes over men's heads, as it's not overt and often in coded messages. Berthas do tend to get a comeuppance at some point, often via proof that no matter what Ms. Better'nyew thinks of herself, she is not all that--her wealthy hubby leaves her for a younger model, her kids turn out to be losers, etc.
In this case, Bertha Better'nyew thinks she knows what women should do with their pregnancies--isn't that between you and your doctor? Bertha Better'nyew thinks she knows what's best for your religion--isn't that none of her beeswax? Bertha Better'nyew thinks she's a pitbull with lipstick--don't that sound an awful lot like your mother-in-law?
When I was a kid, the Bertha on our street was Mrs. Millhouse. She worked part-time so she could be home to serve her kids fresh-baked cookies, and scorned women who worked full time. She was a PTA mom and dressed her daughter in designer clothes, and was oh-so-proud that her dear daughter was the most popular girl in school. When her pretty, popular daughter had to be hospitalized for a cocaine habit that had led her to have sex with drug dealers in public in junior high, oh boy, did the working moms and poor moms and unpopular moms ever smirk. I think my mother, a full time working mom who did not do cookies at all, is still gloating over the day Mrs. Millhouse's shame was made common gossip. Bertha Better'nyew can wreck a lady's image, she really can.