Posts Tagged ‘Jon Stewart’
Thanks to Flickr!
Here’s a hint: The answer isn’t Fox News viewers.
Research conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University finds that those who watch the network are less informed than those who don’t watch news at all. It is one of several studies to find similar results.
Participants were asked to answer questions about their news habits, followed by inquires about current events. Those who identified as Fox viewers proved to know the least on the matters.
The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all.”
Those who go to sources like NPR, USA Today, and the New York Times were generally more informed. Followers of “The Daily Show” were also found to have a better understanding of the issues.
Jon Stewart has not spent a lot of time on some of these issues. But the results show that when he does talk about something, his viewers pick up a lot more information than they would from other news sources.”
Where are you getting your news?
On a rare occasions comedian Jon Stewart will use his TV humor show for serious business.
And get serious attention.
Last Wednesday, Stewart had Dr. Sanjay Gupta on to discuss his recently released 9/11 documentary.
Terror In The Dust follows rescuers who endured a mixture of hazardous chemicals, while saving victims of the attacks on the Twin Towers.
These heroes are now battling possible cancers as a result of their noble civic duty. They have received little health coverage for these ailments. Red tape.
Gupta reported:
People said, ‘Is this emotion or is this science?’ At the ten-year mark, we’re starting to see scientific papers come out and address this.
Stewart asked why we couldn’t give those suffering the “benefit of the doubt.”
With the film coming out during this 10th anniversary of the tragedy, the comedian got off his soap box (briefly) and asked us to think about the cause wholeheartedly.
Granted, Stewart did not shed tears, but watching a clown take off his nose, even for a few minutes, made a strong statement.
The film will air again on September 10th at 9pm on CNN.
Image thanks to the Stir
Matt Damon is known for standing up to the bad guys in the movies, but last weekend, he took a different stand.
A stand for what? Teacher tenure!
In this viral video on Reason.TV the actor makes his case.
The video mostly might be best remembered for some verbal fisticuffs with a bullying camera operator. (Strong Language Advisory!; watch the video if you want to see more.).
While Damon’s colorful language was preceded by an impassioned defense of teachers (his teacher mom looking on proudly), this speech was only one of many last weekend.
Damon was in Washington D.C. speaking at the Save Our Schools March, and just a few hours earlier he had given another speech, one in which he explained that
I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all come from how I was parented and taught. And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned…none of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested.
Others speakers at the event included historians, teachers, activists, and comedians (what’s a D.C. rally nowadays without a Jon Stewart appearance – even if it is via video?).
The speakers spoke about their many different experiences in education, but they all had common themes:
- opposition to the country’s dependence on standardized test results.
- the scape-goating of teachers.
- A strong commitment to make the American education system effective and equitable.
We couldn’t agree more.
The National Park Service estimated that there were 8,000 attendants. The rally was organized not by either of the prominent teachers’ unions but by a grassroots coalition of teachers, parents, and activists.
It was preceded by a two day conference and a film festival featuring the new documentary “The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting For Superman.”
This march is only the most recent event in a long and heated debate about education reform. Michelle Rhee! Teacher tenure! Evaluations! Unions! Testing! Charter schools! School vouchers! What’s next?
And what do you think of Matt Damon’s speech and the Save Our Schools March? What should we be doing to save our schools?
Tuesday, satirist Jon Stewart indulged in his favorite pastime, dunking Fox News. This time he did it in lyrical form.
This time Stewart took issue with how the media in general drums up unnecessary controversies, and how Fox News in particular has been criticizing the White House’s decision to invite Chicago rapper Common to preform.
Hosts like Sean Hannity accused Common of writing violent lyrics, citing a specific poem that “sounded like” killing cops.
Stewart ripped the coverage saying Hannity failed to read the entirety of Common’s poem in which the poet pleas for non-violence.( see video)
Stewart seemed exasperated saying it isn’t even fun to rip Fox anymore “I just fee sorry for you guys.” He decided it would be fun to instead drop a beat.(check out the video)
Saturday’s shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others in Tuscon, Arizona, shocked the nation.
It seemed within minutes of the incident fingers to started to get pointed.
The tragedy quickly turned into a left-versus-right, who-is-responsible-for-all-this, blame-the-other-guy discussion.
This blogger feels, probably naively, the discussion should have first been one of reverence and thoughtfulness.
Only later, when the time is right, should the thorny issues of gun violence, security of public officials, and American political culture be addressed.
To be fair, this event was hard to comprehend. Even Jon Stewart, whom ForeverPlaid looks to for the right things to say all too often, admitted on his show last night (video here) that he didn’t know how to respond to the tragedy. He did say some necessarily sincere things, which should be appreciated:
If there is any solace in this, I think it’s that for all the hyperbole and the vitriol that’s become a part of the political process, when the reality of that rhetoric, when actions match the disturbing nature of words, we haven’t lost our capacity to be horrified.
In relation to the “rhetoric” that Stewart described, in the past few days, there has been a lot of talk about how Sarah Palin’s “cross hairs” map, which came out last spring to single out Democrats in traditional GOP districts to be “targeted” for their votes for health care reform.
It’s also been well-reported that Congresswoman Giffords herself commented on how the heated rhetoric and imagery like this can be consequential.
Yet, it’s difficult already to know if or how the alleged gunman, Jared Loughner, in particular was affected by gun-related graphics and language like Palin’s and others’. At the same time, mixing guns and political communication shouldn’t be tolerated because of what it stands for implicitly.
H/T TPM
On the other hand, Nick Gillespie wrote for the Reason blog that:
The problem isn’t with the current moment’s rhetoric, it’s with the … politicization of every … thing not even for a higher purpose or broader fight but for the cheapest moment-by-moment partisan advantage. Whether on the left or on the right, there’s a totalist mentality that everything can and should be explained first and foremost as to whether it helps or hurt the party of choice.
Perhaps it’s difficult not to be a political reactionary or opportunist when violence that is so politically-tinged occurs.
Still, these questions are raised: Can the blame rest solely on the shoulders of an allegedly mentally unstable gunman? Or is there a greater problem with political culture or violence culture in America?
Should such a tragedy be fodder for political posturing?
Update: CBS has released a poll of 673 American adults that indicates:
Overall, 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, compared to 32 percent who felt it did. Republicans were more likely to feel the two were unrelated – 69 percent said rhetoric was not to blame; 19 percent said it played a part. Democrats were more split on the issue – 49 percent saw no connection; 42 percent said there was.
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From our reporters on the ground (take 2): Why sanity? Why rally? Why now?
by ForeverPlaid 
News, Stewart/Colbert DC Rally
We at USDemocrazy were really excited to have been a part of Saturday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
On the metro to the rally and for a few hours before the action started, we were at work taking pics of the best rally signs (see the beginnings of our documentation here) and interviewing fellow rally-goers about their thoughts for the day.
You’ll be experiencing our observations in the coming posts, but we thought Jon Stewart’s “moment of sincerity” that closed out the event is worth a look for now…
First, here’s the video (in case you missed it!):
The sanity ring-leader joked at the beginning about no one (including us) having a clue as to what the rally really meant to achieve.
We heard answers to this question that were pretty wide in range: from Stewart needing to host a rally to counter Glenn Beck’s own event a few months back, to poking fun at the out-of-control 24-hour-media-punditry-blogosphere-etc.-complex, to pushing for items of the liberal agenda (there were more than a few supporters of legalizing pot who showed their enthusiasm by partaking), and so on.
It was like America in miniature: presumably we were all there for the same reason, but all of us were fueled by our own specific interests and ideas.
Mr. Stewart focused his attack on two areas: the extremists on both ends of the spectrum… and the media with their incendiary points of view. He aptly called out the media for their noise and hype:
If we amplify everything, we hear nothing! …read more.
Luckily CNN anchor Rick Sanchez noticed this disturbing trend and decided to rectify the situation.
He showed remarkable skill by sticking both of his feet in his mouth (up to the knee) while delivering an amazing gaffe of Nixonian proportions.
Did you know that Jews control the media? Sanchez shares such insights on Pete Dominick’s Sirius radio show:
The conversation began with Sanchez decrying “elite, Northeast establishment liberals” who “deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier.
“I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot,” he said. “I think he looks at the world through, his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine.”
When asked who Stewart is bigoted against, Sanchez said “everybody else who’s not like him.”
Mr. Sanchez eventually rephrased his comment, swapping out “bigot” for “prejudicial” and “uninformed”. But when the host of the radio show mentioned that Stewart was himself a minority (Jon Stewart is Jewish) Mr. Sanchez made it clear that he disagreed:
Very powerless people… [snickers] He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of
people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah. [sarcastically]
We here at USDemoCrazy would like to congratulate CNN for booting Mr. Sanchez from their lineup. Any suggestions as to who you’d like to see removed from the airwaves?
A little humor… that’s what’zup today.
Thought you had finally got a handle on grammar? The Onion suggests you might be out of luck:
Some might have called him a neocon but now Jon Stewart’s suggesting neocommie?? Glenn Beck gets targeted again by “The Daily Show”:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rage Within the Machine – Progressivism | ||||
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You’ve seen the figure skating, the bobsledding, the skiing… But have you seen the fondue pong?? (And watch Colbert tell the Russians to “tear down this wall!”)
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Olympic International Houses | ||||
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