Can you expand on this a bit? As far as I'm concerned, I agree with their satirical views most of the time.I don't have a single bit of patience for Stewart or Colbert or the class of ignorant liberal ideologues they're raising
Sure, I can ... I'm positive I've thrown this viewpoint out elsewhere on hubski but I couldn't find it. Let me stress -- you're not supposed to disagree with Stewart or Oliver or whoever. We can all agree gay people are just fine. And the environment should be protected. Etc. I agree with Jon Stewart's stance most of the time. I rarely if ever agree with the way he goes about propagating it. Unfortunately, I have many friends who get their news primarily from the Daily Show. Smart friends. Friends who could presumably devote some brainpower to reading real, thought-out, not made for TV ideas; understanding the intricacies of, say, Hobby Lobby, or the Iraq War (it was wrong! Jon Stewart says so! Why was it wrong? Er... because it didn't work? -- true, but also the worst possible correct answer and a disservice to the study of history). Instead they watch Jon Stewart a few times a week -- and become ideologues. People who defiantly know something without knowing why they know it. People who will not change their minds, even though their opinions come with only the most paltry, 30-second Daily Show soundbite evidence. I can't have more than a surface-level conversation with anyone I know about, oh, asset forfeiture, which Oliver apparently covered the other day. They don't actually know anything about asset forfeiture. Just a quotable from Jon Stewart. So while asset forfeiture is often abused and wielded badly, the nuances of the situation are absolutely lost. I'm sure Stewart will do something with Ted Cruz' tweet about net neutrality today or this weekend. I'm sure the college-age liberals I know will laugh at Cruz and think happily to themselves about how great it is that they agree with Stewart and the side of progress and so on and so forth. I doubt they could tell you a damn thing about net neutrality, though. Just that Republicans are wrong about it. This attitude does not help anything. It does not raise a class of people who are ready to lead this country well, rationally or without bias. It does not promote knowledge and thoughtful discourse. It will not foster a better world -- you do not change the mind of a Republican on net neutrality by insulting him because of the preconceived notions that Stephen Colbert put in your mouth. It creates a culture of pseudo-intellectualism and a blind belief that liberals and progressives are on the side of history and can't do anything wrong. Let's be clear: liberals have done a lot of damn things wrong. So have conservatives. You won't hear that on the Daily Show. And you certainly won't hear an explanation of why everything is wrong. It's entertainment, not wisdom.
If anything I see Stewart/Colberts role has less to do with showing that liberalism is "Correct" and more to do with showing how ridiculous politics are when we take a step back and look at them through a different lens. I think it's also quite odd that you don't think that Stewart will happily lampoon a "liberal" in the same way he does with a conservative. Just as an example: I think “chickenshit” is appropriate in this environment. As they say, “They took the beatin’.” You’re sort of baffled by it. They had a very distinct strategy which was: “We’re not going to make any decisions six months out so that we don’t put any pressure on our vulnerable senators from the red states.” So they were basically saying, “We’re not going to try to provoke people that already hate us anyway and are motivated to come out,” so their strategy was a defensive one of, “Let’s go in a crouch and hope they don’t kick us too hard in the face,” rather than going on the offensive and trying to motivate people who would actually care about them and vote for them. Stewarts game isn't "LOL CONSERVATIVES DUMB WE SMART GOOD JOB" it is "Why in the world are we letting these people run our country? How do we make things better?" This polar view of The Daily Show has existed since almost it's inception (Post Kilborn anyway) and it's ridiculous. They are mocking the onslaught of media and entertainment that make up lies and use their authority to declare an opinion fact.It creates a culture of pseudo-intellectualism and a blind belief that liberals and progressives are on the side of history and can't do anything wrong. Let's be clear: liberals have done a lot of damn things wrong. So have conservatives. You won't hear that on the Daily Show. And you certainly won't hear an explanation of why everything is wrong.
We are just coming off the midterm elections, too, where the Democrats got slaughtered. I believe you used the term “chickenshit” to describe the Dems, and “Red Wedding” to describe the midterms.
I guess I'd want to see some sort of longterm analysis of the Daily Show before I would believe what you said. It doesn't square with my memory. If you tote up the numbers, I suspect Stewart has spent like 80 percent of his airtime mocking the Republican/Tea Party agenda. Ditto Fox News etc versus CNN. In any case, the point I wanted to make got a bit lost -- making fun of people at all is never going to fix the country. Teaching teens and young adults to scorn other points of view is a fucking shame. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Stewart will point out all the massive holes in Obama's "internet as utility" idea, while he's simultaneously mocking Ted Cruz (as he surely will). Maybe he'll have a real, scholarly discussion about the issue, and present all the options. We'll see.
I don't know, he's a comedian, he does comedy things. He's got 22 minutes to make people laugh. 22 minutes vs the 24 hours of fox/cnn/msnbc/etc. The writers on the show usually have a list of news stories, think about what is funny about them, then write a joke and hopefully they can find some old footage they can poke fun at too. I don't think they are even thinking about equal time, because that takes away from the funny. But he is known to have deep discussions with authors, politicians, and pundits which are available on comedy central's websites for interviews that run longer than the show. The ones with Bill O'Reilly are particularly good http://thedailyshow.cc.com/guests/bill-oreilly he's done these with Ron Paul and other Republican and Libertarians too.
But does Colbert/Stewart/Oliver actively promote the notion that what they are saying is wisdom, and that watching their shows provide a good foundation on issues? You and I know both know that the shows are entertainment in the end, but many people do not. My question is if that is because of their misinterpretation or because it is the image actively put on by these shows. If it's the former, then I'd attribute it more towards people wanting the information as quickly and easily as possible (see: Twitter) and not entirely faulting the shows themselves. However, I'm unsure which issue is the greater issue for these shows.
I think they do to an extent. The holier-than-thou attitude -- I haven't watched any of the shows in ages, but I recall Stewart on many occasions taking on a sort of righteous moral stance about various issues. Part of his shtick is, "I'm better than the real news anchors on the right." Which puts him on the same playing field, and fools a ton of people (or allows them to fool themselves ... it's human to seek affirmation for your ideas, not confirmation). I don't blame him. As I said above, he's a brand. His face and voice and persona, and Colbert's, are worth tons of money. He is paid to act the way he does, and fool people along and insult Republicans along the way. S'fine. But when my liberal friends trash Fox News all day every day and refuse to acknowledge the degree to which all of us^ are getting our news from biased echo chambers ... nope. Not having it. ^I include myself in this, though for about five years now I've been doing my absolute damnedest to escape bias and get news from every source possible. Feels like a losing battle sometimes. Has mostly made me skeptical of everything and very bitter.