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Daily Show Production Team Nets Creative Freedom
gremlins writes "Jon Stewart, who recently celebrated his sixth anniversary with "The Daily Show" and was a rumored possible replacement to Dan Rathers, has signed a deal which allows his production team, Busboy Productions, to develop televison projects on their own. The deal also allows Busboy Productions to flirt with other networks when looking for a home for the projects. Comedy Central still gets the right of first refusal for any projects created."
But why is it on Slashdot?
(No, it's not even in the politics section.)
A comedian as a replacement for a serious news anchor?
Oh yeah... Dan Rather. Sorry. I must have mis-read that.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I don't think the article says that the TDS team gets any freedom... they're just getting funding to do spin-offs.
Jon Stewart has a lot of experience with fake news.
For more on this developing story, we turn to our senior Dan Rather analyst, Mr. Stephen Colbert.
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The Daily Show is often more insightful about the news than the mainstream media. You would probably be better served watching a half hour of the Daily Show than CNN/Fox News, etc.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Columbian drug mule and panda killer?
John Stewart, while very funny, definatly wears his politics on his shoulder. Stewart speaks his mind and has openly supported one political party over the other. The CBS anchor job requires a neutral position, so that the newscast is not agenda driven like Foxnews or CNN. Dan Rather was actually good at hiding his political beliefs, I doubt Stewart could be as successful.
time is a perception of a being's consciousness
time is your 6th sense, the wierd ones are 7+
To imply that Jon Stewart is a journalist and a replacement for Dan Rather is a gross mischaracterization and sad commentary on the state of news media.
Jon Stewart is a comedian! The Daily Show is a comedy show! He is far from objective although he is hilarious.
And of course there's this brilliant tidbit where he blasts CNN's crossfire for being theater instead of actual news. The best part is when conservative crossfire host Tucker Carlson tries to ask Jon Stewart why he gave Kerry softball questions when he was on the Daily Show, Stewart responded (paraphrased from memory) "What I didn't realize, and maybe this explains alot, is that CNN takes its queues on integrity from Comedy Central. The show that leads into mine is puppets making crank phone calls."
Jon Stewart is brilliant, and since the Daily Show has the satirical factor embedded in it, it allows him more freedom than most other media outlets. And ironically in many cases he does a better job at explaining the news. For example, Daily Show viewers tend to be more informed than viewers of many other programs.
That out of the way, I would like to encourage people to watch The Daily Show even though it comes on at 11pm EST (it also reruns at 7pm EST the following evening). Even those of you who reject it outright as Left Wing BS.
Pause for a moment and try to listen to what the man has to say in as unbiased a way as possible...thinking of him as a standup comedian might help in this regard.
Over time, you'll realize, that he indeed makes a lot of sense. Atleast when compared to the lameass corporate-owned media which the populace considers as mainstream (and factual) news. In his own, sarcastic and comedic way, he puts forth "politically incorrect" news items, which the popular media outlets are unwilling to touch, or willing to slant to suit their ends.
Give it a try. Thank you.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Last year an interesting story ran amok in the media about how _Daily Show_ watchers were beter informed than Fox News watchers. Geeks are better informed. The _Daily Show_, as a parody of news shows and the news, is for news geeks. We're such geeks that we can't even notice this basic fact without asking one another for clarification. Welcome to the club.
--
make install -not war
This guy's a little slow
The actual study can be found here. There was also a slashdot discussion here.
Is Dan Rathers?
SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
he's anti-Bush. That goes over real well here.
One of the primary sources (possibly the primary source) of critical thinking and humor on TV today is the Daily Show.
Karma-wise, we're all on the same wavelength....
Wow, missed the point award goes to....
Jon's whole point was "we don't pretend to be news"
Obviously too subtle for you. At least he's funny.
Show me a Crossfire fan and I'll show you a psycho.
You people need to get laid while you still can.
Jon is our court jester. It's truly sad that you'll see more incisive commentary on TDS than on the major news networks. I've given up on all TV news except TDS- there's no point left to the major news programs anymore.
The most telling comment I ever saw on TDS was a short clip of a british journalist grilling Tony Blair about something. Stewart's comment was something like "Where can we get some guys like this?" Lord knows the american media has just given up.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
For a second there, I thought you were really Jon Stewart like on the Daily Show. But, Jon Stewart is American and they spell rationalize with a z and behavior without the u.
I had already been a fan of Jon Stewart for some time before he took over the chair at The Daily Show; but I must admit, it took him and the writing staff a year or so to become consistently funny. The show was often painfully bad for the first season.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
where is a reliable source of Daily Show torrents?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I'd rather not see Stewart dishing out real news. He's perfect where he is. I doubt CBS would allow him to do the satire that comedy central does, and that's the strength of the Daily Show.
I mean that one comes as a huge "duh". On his interview on C-span Stewart joked about that how you get a green screen and one shot of Baghdad and wham, you have a reporter in the Middle East. I even recall an episode where two reporters that were supposed to be in different parts of the world started areuging and eventually went after each other, back and forth between the two boxes that were supposed to be the different camera angles, it was hilarious.
However, I'll give the guy some credit. The Daily Show does news so well (or perhaps it's just that normal news is done so poorly) that some peopel do take them more seriously than they should. They start to think the funny is just a hook, and it's a new program.
No, actually, it's a talkshow, just like Letterman or Leno. Starts with the monologue, goes to the feature, then the guest, then out. It's just a little shorter than the big ones. The news program is just their angle on it, their fun format. All talk shows do a topical show, it's what people want. The Daily Show jsut pretends to be a news show while they do it. That they actually do a good job covering current events is just evidence of the quality.
So I can give people a little credit for confusing the format with the aim, but it's still pretty stupid.
"...although I do agree that his show is comedy, for him to play it off as if he doesn't have an impact on how people think about politics was an artful dodge on his part."
He's never claimed to be anything but comedy. He delivers deadpan frequently, but he directly makes fun of news. The reason why there is irony here is that he, a self-proclaimed (and acknowledged) comedian goes on a supposedly serious news show, blasts them for their practices, and when they try to attack him for journalistic integrity they are left with nothing specifically because he isn't a journalist, but they have confused him for one. They can't make any logical retort at that point because his comedy is more accurate news than their journalism is.
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vis-a-vis Jon Stewart not being a serious journalist. The Daily Show has an International Edition that actually plays on CNN on weekends (if you live in asia). Which at last look was accepted as a serious news channel.
Political satire has always been just as, or indeed more effective in changing opinion on policies and governments than the regular news media.
Dismiss this man at your peril.
First thing I thought of was maybe they could develop the next Star Trek series--as a comedy. Seriously.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Yes, I know, we're not supposed to gripe about moderation, but I think the parent poster is fairly close to right. TDS wants to have it both ways: to be treated seriously by its audience, and at the same time to be left alone as "ha-ha-only serious" satire. Can't have it both ways, kids.
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Um, dude, you do know it's a comedy show right? As far as I understand it, it doesn't matter what kind of bias a comedy show has. He doesn't care about presenting an objective viewpoint. And he doesn't have to.
Think your argument and your problem through again, except this time replace all instances of "The Daily Show" with "The Man Show" and see how it comes out.
...sigh...
B
PS - as an aside, I'd say that The Daily Show was just about as biased towards the Left during the election as FOX News was towards the Right. Of course, FOX News *does* present itself as an objective, credible source of information. Which was a hefty portion of Stewart's point when he was on Crossfire on CNN.
"We must still have chaos within in order to be able to give birth to a dancing star." --Friedrich Nietzsche
he's not nessessarily anti-bush, before the bush administraition he poked plenty of fun at the clinton administration. it's mostly whoever is in power gets made fun of (thought Gore and Kerry each had their fair share too). And have you watched the show recently at all? I would say the Bush jokes and the democrats are pussies jokes almsot even out (or are at least getting a lot closer). And besides, when you have an administration as absurd as the Bushie admin, how can you NOT make fun of it? Its just so easy...
Actually, my father was Welsh. But you didn't hear that from me.
It just doesn't fit, and I almost always fast-forward through it (and when I don't fast forward through it, I always regret it, because it turns out to be incredibly boring, even if it's Eric Idle). It's never funny or entertaining. Lose it, and the show will improve. Interview authors and politicians instead.
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The biggest political partison on the air? Not Bill O'Reilly? Not Michael Savage? Not Ann Coulter? Jon Stewart is not a journalist, right?
95% of his guests were Kerry shills? Ed Gillespie? Fareed Zakaria? John Leguizamo? Samuel L. Jackson? Kevin Spacey? Jude Law? Desmond Tutu? Bill O'Reilly? Jerry Seinfeld?
Have you *ever* been outside the US?! Only in America can a liberal be on the left wing...
Jon admits to a bias and refuses to correct it... but he wants to still correct all sorts of faults he detects in the mainstream media.
:-)
This was exactly my point. Let me rephrase. Do you have a bias? Are you a liberal, conservative, libertarian? Librarian? Unless you're absolutely apolitical, you have some sort of affinity for a particular political party. Now, to use your argument:
"You have an admitted bias, and you refuse to correct it. But you still assume to attack Jon Stewart for having an admitted bias. When your hypocrisy was pointed out, you say, in effect, 'I'm not a journalist!' To which I say, 'EXACTLY!'"
Jon Stewart isn't a journalist. He plays one on TV. Your second argument, "So taking his advice about media bias is taking the advice of an arrogant joker." seems to indicate that you don't believe comedians can complain about how crappy the news has gotten. If that's what you really believe, well... I'm afraid we're probably never going to come to an agreement.
Formerly GNU/Anonymous Coward. This message has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
"Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."
- Will Rogers (I think, took it off a 'net source)
This quotation seems to hit the mark since all of our comedians actually end up making a lot more sense than our politicians and media.
Bring on the comedian overlords.