Kudos to Jon Stewart for simply being his usual smart, insightful self. Apparently, there are legions of young people getting their news from "The Daily Show." Which I admittedly found a little odd - they couldn't at least supplement it with browsing The Huffington Post or New York Times? Still though, it shows what a chord Stewart is striking with the X and Y generations these days.
What it says terrible things about are the network and cable news networks. They are unwatchable, in most cases. They gloss over or ignore altogether the finer details of hard-hitting news stories and spend much of their time instead on sports, weather, the weekly box office race and your standard Hollywood gossip.
And then as the under-appreciated Ralph Nader points out about local news formats (a whole other beast), viewers are endlessly subjected to the phony, cringe-inducing banter of the anchors we're presumably supposed to find charming in their "spontaneity." Every news show does it, and for starters it's not even remotely possible that every group of anchors out there gets along gangbusters as they'd like us to believe. But even if it was in every case genuine, from Tallahassee to Spokane, it's yet more time taken away from actual news. Which is the point of "news" programs, is it not?
Finally, take out one third of total viewing time for ads, too many of which are devoted to erection pills (which is all that seem to play on Olbermann), and you're left with even less information to glean.
Sad to say, but TV news is a joke now. CNN, as a prime example, just seems to get worse with time. Whenever I'm caught in its evil web, while channel-surfing or in an airport lobby, I'm amazed at how much more dumbed down and entertainment-driven it's become since the last time I saw it.
I assume CNN thinks making their format "pop" more will bring in additional twenty-somethings. But the fatal flaw in that line of thinking is the assumption that young people are like monkeys, attracted to bright, shiny graphics, Twitter mentions and Britney coverage. But America's 20- and 30-somethings are instead drawn to ingenuity, to that which rings true - a rarity on television.
Which brings us full circle to "The Daily Show." Stewart doesn't bullshit us. And he's really, really smart. Which is what Wolf Blitzer, Charlie Gibson, George Snuffaluppaguss and all the other white anchors (plus Katie) should be for their news shows to be relevant. Perhaps those individuals are equally as clever and incisive as Stewart (who, admittedly is also white), but if it's the case they're not exactly proving themselves on camera.
Alas... "What's Wrong With TV News " is a huge topic I can't possibly winnow my rambling thoughts about into one blog post, so I'll leave it there for now.
But it bears repeating that TV news has become a farce. Thank God we have Jon - and not just for his jokes.
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