Smart(ass) News Shows for Our Generation

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had news coverage concerning swine flu on April 27. In the typical fashion, much of Stewart’s coverage is less fact and more reaction. He begins by playing a compilation of short clips from other news shows in order to express to the audience exactly how hot of a topic it has been over the past few days. Video clips that he comments on include news coverage on cases that have been found throughout the world, news correspondents terrifying its audience by saying the outbreak can cause hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide, and reporters claiming that they’re intentions are not to ‘freak people out.’ In this all, Stewart finds humor, pointing out all the flaws and fallacies of both traditional news coverage and human nature. Still, there’s always something for the audience members hoping comedy can in fact be informational. Stewart still manages to go over where and how the outbreak began, and make jokes out of both pieces of information. His piece closes with two correspondents, John Oliver reporting from the Center for Disease Control and Jason Jones reporting from the ‘Center for Stuff I Heard from Some Guy,’ again, poking fun at America’s quickness to believe anything they hear regardless of the source.
As one might expect, Fox news handled the news topic a little differently. One news report interviewed clinical psychologist Robin Kerner, who assured people that stressing out about the outbreak may only make you more susceptible to the flu. Further reports discussed the high rate of people going to the hospital with no real symptoms, and a list of real symptoms to be on the lookout for. They close by telling its audience that even if the outbreak should become worse, medications are available to help control the flu. Fox coverage also had an interview with Dr. Siegel, who helped by sharing with the audience what information concerning bird flu is fact, and what is fiction.
It’s clear that The Daily Show and traditional news approached their report on the swine flu differently, but what does that say about each program and its validity as news programs? As Smolkin says in her article, “What the Mainstream Media Can Learn from Jon Stewart,” “Stewart and his team often seem to steer closer to the truth than traditional media journalists.” This is most often achieved by showing clips of either other news reporters or politicians tripping on words or contradicting themselves, at which point, “Stewart can state the obvious—ridiculing such blather as it deserves to be ridiculed—or remain silent but speak volumes by merely arching an eyebrow.” Perhaps one of the reasons this is so effective is because it either calls out the validity of others or gives the audience the credit to be able to the hypocrisy themselves. It’s clear that comedy news shows like The Daily Show get a lot of their steam by poking holes in the coverage of traditional news programs.
On the other hand, traditional news coverage never really takes much time commenting on other news programs. They stick to their own reporters and tell the story as they feel is most fair to its audiences. Still, this creates problems when covering hot topics such as swine flu, with which they need to be careful to not terrify its audience, but inform them of the practical dangers they should be concerned over.
Traditional news programs are held to certain standards that comedy news programs are not. They are expected to report the truth in ways that will keep the public calm in such situations as swine flu, which is not always possible when it was difficult to predict the extent of the flu’s danger. Comedy news programs are different in that they are more of a commentary on the traditional news shows than a source of vital information. Instead of taking the time to warn its viewers of the symptoms of the swine flu to be aware of, they can perform a skit making fun of how people will believe some outlandishly false facts in favor of common sense. The humor alone in comedy news programs is enough to give them an advantage of traditional news programs because so much of today’s youth wants to stay informed, but the traditional news programs don’t really cater to the entertainment aspect that newer generations constantly crave.
But perhaps this desire to be entertained in all we watch is one of the points that Malcolm Gladwell tries to make in his work titled “Brain Candy,” as he discusses how, “what is making us smarter is precisely what we thought was making us dumber: popular culture.” Perhaps Jon Stewart’s attempts at news coverage are exactly what our generation needs to be better educated and well informed individuals. Stewart’s coverage reminds viewers to not always blindly accept the things we see and hear from supposedly ‘valid’ sources, by constantly calling them out on their mistakes. Still, it’s important to remember that it’s not really traditional news’ fault given the pressing and fast nature of informing the public of pressing matters.