Journalism, Satire, Just Laughs? Daily Show with Jon Stewat

PEJ Study: 'Daily Show' Offering Valuable News
By Joe Strupp
Published: May 08, 2008

If you flip on "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central expecting just laughs, think again. A new study shows the popular late night "news" report is giving more news-related offerings than people might think.

The study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which analyzed 136 episodes, indicates Stewart may have as much David Brinkley in him as David Letterman.

"The findings suggest that The Daily Show is something more than simply comedy played for laughs, and that some of what appears on the program falls in the tradition of such satirists as Russell Baker, Art Buchwald or H.L. Mencken, writers who used humor to offer pointed political commentary in American newspapers," the study released Thursday said.

Among its findings:

• "Washington-related pieces, U.S. foreign affairs (especially the Bush Administration's Iraq war policy), and general politics accounted for 47% of the show's airtime in 2007. In that regard, by the numbers The Daily Show closely resembles in its topic agenda the news menu of many cable 'news' shows."

• "In its use of news video, The Daily Show is often quite documentary, culling through archives to show official hypocrisy, abuse of language, and spin."

• "The list of guests who appear on The Daily Show is evenly split among Democrats and Republicans. But a more impressionistic evaluation suggests that the content nonetheless was heavily tilted toward criticism of the Bush White House. In 2007, nearly a quarter (22%) of the segments during this time period centered on the Bush Administration alone."

"The press itself is a major target of the program. In 2007, 8% of all the airtime was about the press, (that compares with 3% of the time in the media generally being self reflective)."

But the study also said many major stories are absent, adding: "As a place to get the full news of the day, The Daily Show falls well short. Many major news events of 2007, such the Virginia Tech massacre or the Minneapolis bridge collapse ?- are completely absent or significantly undercovered on the show."
----------------------------------------------------

Journalism, Satire or Just Laughs? "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Examined

In a survey last year, Americans named Jon Stewart one of the nation's most admired journalists, despite the Comedy Central host's insistence that's not what he does. A new PEJ content analysis of 136 episodes of The Daily Show examines the intersection of comedy and news that is the key to the show's success.


Read the entire report:
http://www.journalism.org/node/10953