Jon Stewart’s Punching Bag, Fox News

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The New York Times media section has a great article by Brian Selter examing Jon Stewart's ongoing feud with Fox News, the most recent involving Bernie Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly. It's a detailed look at how in a weird way, Jon Stewart IS a journalist by virtue of his fact checking and exposing Fox News for what it truly is, because the mainstream media outlets will not. The bigger question for me (excluding MSNBC) is why doesn't MSM do a better job of taking on Fox News?


Fox News suggested that President Obama's nuclear summit logo was using the Islamic crescent.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are long gone. Fox News Channel is Jon Stewart’s new enemy No. 1. Last week that comedian did something that the hosts of “Fox & Friends,” the morning show on Fox News, did not do: he had his staff members call the White House and ask a question.

It may have been in pursuit of farce, not fact, but it gave credence to the people who say “The Daily Show” is journalistic, not just satiric. “Fox & Friends” had repeatedly asked whether the crescent-shaped logo of the nuclear security summit was an “Islamic image,” one selected by President Obama in his outreach to the Muslim world. The White House told “The Daily Show” that the logo was actually based on the Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom. “This is how relentless Fox is” in savaging President Obama, Mr. Stewart said.

On the subject of Fox, Mr. Stewart is pretty relentless too. As demonstrated by that crescent segment and dozens of others since Mr. Obama took office, he may well be television’s pre-eminent fact-checker of Fox News, the nation’s highest-rated cable news channel. It has been noticed by, among other people, the Fox host Bill O’Reilly, who called Mr. Stewart a “devoted critic” of Fox News and said “his influence is growing.”

“Stewart does a great job of using comedy to expose the tragedy that is Fox News, and he also underscores the seriousness of it,” said Eric Burns, the president of Media Matters. The segments about Fox are often replayed hundreds of thousands of times on blogs and other Web sites, amplifying their significance. “Media criticism has become part of his brand,” said Mark Jurkowitz, the associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, who noted that Mr. Stewart had also dissected CNN and CNBC in lengthy segments in the past.

It is true that the often-left-leaning “Daily Show” deals with a wide array of topics, but Fox is one that Mr. Stewart is overtly passionate about; he said on the show this week that he criticizes the network a lot because it is “truly a terrible, cynical, disingenuous news organization.”

(source)

Comments

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I think what Stewart is doing is useful, and he's doing it very skillfully, but on the other hand he has become rather obsessive about it, which makes his ultimate purpose kinda questionable.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

His ultimate purpose? Maybe being biased against biased people is enough of a reason in itself.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

'They're doing it so why shouldn't I?'

Makes sense.

[adrunkencadence.livejournal.com]

Is be obsessed or is he and his writers demonstrating with accuracy that Fox News' bias is not isolated to one or two small situations and is instead a salient 'narrative' of lies?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Both.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

I dunno, he called CNN on some of their crappy reporting. Things like the "We'll have to leave it at that" immediately after someone makes a ridiculous claim, that sort of thing. Perhaps not so avidly as with Fox, but perhaps that's because Fox gives more ammo.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, especially that appreance Stewart did on CNN's Crossfire with Paul Beglia and giving CNN all sorts of hell. That show was cancelled not long after that.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Of course he did. He has to do that kind of stuff or he'd be called the Glenn Beck of leftism, and that's not a very nice thing.

Perhaps not so avidly as with Fox

Closer, closer.

[medea34.livejournal.com]

the hypocracy on fox is beyond humor- and kudos to Stewart for pointing it out. until people stop watching fox as a news source - I hope ge continues to point out their biased stupidity. fox is not news - it is right wing propoganda, all the worse because it is so transparent. they don't even pretend to be anything but right wing nut jobs. if Stewart can get this across to the masses, using humor - good job.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

And every other tv news show is left wing propaganda. So what is your point?

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Probably because the MSM wants to continue patronizing a news model that is mostly opinion, and thus generates more viewers and revenue. Even if they are getting beat by Fox at the game, they ain't going to stop playing.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

Right, because a rising tide (profit-wise) lifts all boats, even as the same falling tide (profession-wise) also lowers all those boats.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

"he bigger question for me (excluding MSNBC) is why doesn't MSM do a better job of taking on Fox News? "

Isn't the answer obvious?

Because they are all just as guilty of the same levels of distortions, half truths, and outright lies as Fox and if they went after Fox, Fox would return fire and expose them as well. Comedy Central's Daily Show however can get away with it because they make no bones about their biases and no claims about being a news organization so for fox to respond to the attacks with "Well gee see here is Stewart being disingenuous our outright lying" would never work because he could say "Of course I was it was just satire".


I mean honestly. You seriously believe that there is anything out there approaching unbiased journalism anymore? That died in the Vietnam war when Dan Rather was allowed to get away with categorizing the Tet Offensive as a defeat for the US forces (when in fact up until the gulf war it was the most lopsided military victory in recorded history).

So today we have a situation where Fox is center right and generally pushed Republican agenda's, CNN is center left although it tends more towards Populism than outright Democratic party support, MSNBC is far left and supports the Democratic party unabashedly except where they slam them for not being progressive enough, and the remaining Mainstream (TV) news stations are somewhere between CNN and MSNBC.

If you want the truth of what is going on in the world, follow Fox, CNN, and any 1 other media source. The truth will lie somewhere in between.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The trouble with your theory, is that Jon Stewart goes after all the media outlets, and not just Fox.

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

Occasional bias in other news outlets =/= fox news constantly distorting truth and spreading outright lies, no matter how badly you want it to seem like it's the same thing.

Tempests in tea pots

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Stewart goes after Fox News because Fox News has the ratings.

Re: Tempests in tea pots

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Stewart's record really doesn't support your theory I'm afraid.

[chemchick.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy his "Go Fuck Yourself" song.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

He's been using it several times. Last time he told some Muslim organization to go fuck themselves. I expect death threats any time soon.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

We know science isn't a strong suit over at that network. I'd be willing to bet Glenn Beck whargabbled that talking point and the rest of the network picked it up.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Physics? That's just left-wing atheistic nonsense. We all know God is the real physics. Hence why they jumped to God/Allah.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

The whole Jon Stewart/Bernie Goldberg, O'Reilly, FNC feud is a joke. Stewart's a comedian. He's called out CNN and CNBC before for B.S. and moved on. If O'Reilly puts this to bed instead of dwelling on it for the full week (I haven't watched all week so I don't know for sure if he has yet), that'll be one of the classiest things he's done in a while. But knowing O'Reilly, he'll drag this through the mud and try to paint Stewart in a negative light for some God forsaken reason. O'Reilly can be a pompous windbag sometimes, but I'd still watch him over Olbermann any day of the week.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

"The bigger question for me (excluding MSNBC) is why doesn't MSM do a better job of taking on Fox News? "

Ah, Howell Raines had the same question. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031102523.html)

His answer:

"Why has our profession, through its general silence -- or only spasmodic protest -- helped Fox legitimize a style of journalism that is dishonest in its intellectual process, untrustworthy in its conclusions and biased in its gestalt? The standard answer is economics, as represented by the collapse of print newspapers and of audience share at CBS, NBC and ABC. Some prominent print journalists are now cheering Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp. (which owns the Fox network) for his alleged commitment to print, as evidenced by his willingness to lose money on the New York Post and gamble the overall profitability of his company on the survival of the Wall Street Journal. This is like congratulating museums for preserving antique masterpieces while ignoring their predatory methods of collecting."

a few paragraphs later:

" He and his video ferrets have intimidated center-right and center-left journalists into suppressing conclusions -- whether on health-care reform or other issues -- they once would have stated as demonstrably proven by their reporting. I try not to believe that this kid-gloves handling amounts to self-censorship, but it's hard to ignore the evidence. News Corp., with 64,000 employees worldwide, receives the tender treatment accorded a future employer. "

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

I had the luck to see Stewart live when he did his "go fuck yourself" song to Bernie Sanders (with the gospel chorus) and when he referred to Fox as the lupus of News. Which may be a good analogy, but I prefer this one.

Fox is to News what McDonalds is to food. [All fat, no fiber.]

Also.....when entering the studio for the daily show, there is a sign over the door:

"Abandon all news ye who enter here"