The Daily Show

I’ve kvetched about the news before.  I started mistrusting the networks when Good Morning America shifted their focus from world and national events to wedding dresses and the Red Sox.  (Okay, I know the Red Sox finally coming out on top was huge, but really?  There was a really intense presidential campaign going on at the time and ABC put the news on hold for that?)

I could turn this into another rant on how the battle between reporting and entertainment has favored the second choice for far too long, but I won’t.  Instead, I’ll focus on what may be the only check on the news media’s excess: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show is not a news show; indeed, a running gag they admit often is that they’re Comedy Central’s fake news station.  It is pure entertainment…

…and yet it’s not pure entertainment.  While they’re not reporting the news, Daily Show is extremely rigorous in its fact-checking on the stories they choose to mock, or as I think of it: editorialize.  As I see it, if this were print media, these folks would be the Opinion page, and that’s not a bad thing to be.

When I first started watching the show, I noticed that they took a lot of shots at Fox, like everybody else in the visual media.  They’re not shy about it; it’s a very liberal program and Fox seems like their natural foe.  I figured they were just going for the easy jokes.

And then I saw them take on CNN and ABC, and called them into account for their excesses and sheer stupidity, and that’s when I realized that Daily Show isn’t just making jokes; they are making a serious point that journalists have a responsibility to tell the truth and how betrayed we feel when they fail in that duty.

I don’t always agree with everything they say, but it is funny and is holding the reporting profession to aim higher than they currently are.  It’s only a half-hour long and four nights a week.  And it can take even less of your time, depending on whether you care for the guests they bring on (I usually skip the Hollywood stars, but there are enough politicians and authors they bring on that are fascinating to listen to.)

I guess what I’m saying is that I finally have a late night show I will actually make time for.