July 22nd, 2013
Mollie Hemingway has a pretty convincing call to be wary of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. It’s predicated on the experience of a fellow named Matt Slick, who agreed to be part of a produced piece. He details his experience here.
The producers Slick spoke with misrepresented their intentions to him, but that’s no great sin and it happens at every level from the New York Times and 60 Minutes down to Sally Jesse and your local City Paper. But what’s really eye popping is the editing which was done in post to distort Slick’s words.
After the fact, Slick requested a copy of the full interview (nearly 3 hours), but the show refused. Luckily, Slick was smart enough to record the interview separately. For example:
What they edited and put on TV was this:
- Matt: “The reverse happens as well [camera angle change] where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up.”
Now notice what happened on the show. They had me saying, “The reverse happens as well [camera angle change] where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up.” That is not what I said. I said “I don’t know about bullying where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up”.
That’s most definitely not something that happens every day. But unless the Daily Show comes out and apologizes to Slick, you have to assume it’s standard operating procedure over there.
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Heh, that’s how they do it at NBC News’s Miami div.
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They Daily show asked to be treated like Saturday night live it. No one ever complains when weekend update misrepresents the truth. They is why people go and watch Saturday night live. I find the fact that people try to hold the Daily Show to the same standard as CNN, MSNBC, or Fox silly. Why do people think it is a real news show?
I think the fact that we can mistake the Daily Show and SNL Weekend update for news say a lot for how terrible our news is.
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Troy, it’s called ‘clown nose on, clown nose off.’ It’s a trick used by satirists and, frankly, every journalist and political junkie I’ve ever met. Ace from ace(dot)mu(nu) speaks (well…rants) about it extensively. Short version, clown nose is ‘on’ when deflecting criticism or just assing around, clown nose is ‘off’ when doing something you could theoretically call news. Jon Stewart is a journalist. He engages in journalism. It is the most crass and base form of the aforementioned hobby (and let’s not pretend journalism is anything more or less than that), but it is, technically, journalism. Thus, I call fair freaking target.
My cursory and o-so-thorough perusing of headlines gleamed from the first page of Google’s search for “clown nose off clown nose on” tells me that Jon Stewart is the spiritual liege of this particular meme.
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Clearly you’ve not been in many conversations with liberals who actually DO hold TDS in the same regard as CNN or MSNBC. You also must not be aware of Tim Geithner or other Obama administration officials actually consulting with Jon Stewart and his crew.
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Not buying what you’re trying to sell. When every “skit” is designed as propaganda against one political party and in support of the democrat party, it’s no longer a comedy show. Its just propaganda disguised as comedy.
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Tony Garrett, I don’t see the joke in showing a video of someone saying something that is obviously highly inflammatory and idiotic, which they did not say. I do not think the Daily Show’s presentation of these interviews makes clear that the person they are showing did not show it. I think the Daily Show actually attempts to convince us that these hacked together lies are the truth, and that we should be furious at the person who said the thing he didn’t say.
They throw in jokes about how awful it was that the person said the thing he didn’t say, which gets a lot of ratings.
This is presented as journalism, but when the Daily Show is caught smearing people or lying, they say they aren’t real news and it’s all a gag. This is just another act of dishonesty.
Your comparing the Daily Show to SNL’s Weekend Update is either dishonest or shows you do not understand the issue.
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@troy garrett:
“I find the fact that people try to hold the Daily Show to the same standard as CNN, MSNBC, or Fox silly.”
I’ve never heard anyone say that the Daily Show needs to hold the same standards. It’s a comedy show, kind of news parody. That said, it is a primary source of news for a large number of people who are low information voters. They don’t think to question the premise of what’s said on that show nor look for the bias. Indeed, they’re drawn to it.
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Reminds me of Bill Bennett’s story of being grilled by Mike Wallace under the eye, pun intended, of 60 Minutes cameras for 3 hours or so, only in Bennett’s case (as BB tells it) Wallace finally give up in a fit of frustration.
Stewart will eventually make the transition to “hard news”…I’d give it 3-5 years.
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In the same time slot as Good Morning America and Fox and friends Comedy Central is running infomercials on the ab lounger. Seriously if Stewart is all that is left of mainstream liberal media declare victory.
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Jon Stewart likes to have it both ways. On the one hand he wants to put on his big boy pants and play with the other journalists, and then when he gets caught doing something like this he changes his tune and says “Hey, I’m just a comic. Nobody takes me seriously, it’s all just humor.” Whatever you want to call it, it amounts to a lack of integrity and a blantant show of dishonesty. In the fine traditions of NBC rigging a Ford truck to “explode” when struck near it’s gas tank, by placing a remotely ignited model rocket engine on the tank. This, after several previous attempts failed to yield even so much as a whisp of smoke.
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If you are in a position where you are going to be interviewed by a any television show, be it the Today show, 60 Minutes or the Daily Show be sure to have your own camera and record a copy of the interview. Audio tape as well for backup. Otherwise decline.
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“I don’t know about bullying where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up”.
Very simple answer for that, it’s our judicial system today, where gay privileges activists use the court to DESTROY anyone who does not completely submit to their agenda. If you really need me to, I’ll cite a few cases, but you know they’re out there.
Nedward July 24, 2013 at 6:38 am
Sorry. If local blog policy is to try to avoid gated-community/ground-standing flame war #3,944 then by all means mod out above comment…