Ann Althouse has stopped watching The Daily Show. She explains why at her blog. She also asks when everyone else stopped watching.
That’s a great question. I never got into the habit of watching that show every day. I usually saw it a couple times a week. It was funny. It took jabs at everyone. Last year my lease expired a month before I went overseas, so I lived in a camper at the KOA. That was when I stopped watching, no more cable. Of course I did have the opportunity to watch The Daily Show overseas. The trailer home I lived in had cable, so the roommate and I bought a TV. The only problem with the cable is that it was controlled by the host nation. We had a selection of channels, but they sometimes changed channel assignment. That might be confusing, so I’ll explain that further. If I was watching channel 40 before leaving to work it would be Discovery International, I might come back from work and now channel 40 is showing The Travel Channel. The host nation controlled the switchbox and would censor some shows by simply turning off that channel and putting something else in its place, which is reasonable, if you’re in another country you have to accept that they make the rules and have cultural norms different than our own.
But anyways, the swapping of channels often meant it was difficult to watch some networks. Luckily some channels never changed, so I spent most of the time watching those. It was always frustrating to be watching something and suddenly they pull the network, so you learn to anticipate that and avoid shows that might offend them.
I obviously came back from overseas and once again had cable in my home, but never got back into watching The Daily Show. I tried, but they lost touch with the “slam everybody” genre. It became more of a “bash Bush” hour, which I could take, but they weren’t even joking anymore. The “joke” you could watch on The Daily Show would be the same argument people seriously tried to argue. The Daily Show became a moonbat echo chamber. You could pick up a paper and read “Bush did this”. Then go get a drink at the Union and hear, “Bush did this”. Then go home, turn on The Daily Show and hear “Bush did this”. The next day there’s another article in the paper quoting a celebrity or some Congress Democrat saying “Bush did this”. Why bother watching The Daily Show if I’m already going to hear or read the joke several times anyways?
Basically The Daily Show has become marginalized and I’m no longer part of the target market. Jon Stewart needs to start spending time with a more diverse crowd. Maybe then he’ll realize his show is loosing steam.
I would not blame Jon Stewart for not covering boths sides evenly. It could simply be the fact that the White House, Senate and Congress are largely filled with Republicans and from what I can see, the Democrats are laying low. One local Democrat explained that it was actually their strategy since the elections are so far off. I have not seen Howard Dean or John Kerry do anything newsworthy in a while. Personally I think they should be digging in and working to make a difference regardless of the election season.
With a recent interview of a congressman (Democrat) he pointed out that the appointment of Michael Brown as FEMA director was not challenged by the Democrats despite his lack of background in crisis management. The fact that he spent the previous 10 years managing refs at a horse track should have been raised. Jon Stewart said by that lack of oversight the Democrats should take some heat over the result. And I agree with that. Our government is based on several checks and balances, first with the 3 branches and then with the 2 party system. Of one party is too weak to make a difference than the other party will be able to make appointments without proper oversight.
But for the Daily Show, it seems he is just working with what material the President is providing. Besides, it is easy and funny. The President still puts together words in a way which is quite comical on it’s own. Most of the time the Daily Show just edits them all together and it is just funny as is. And Rumsfeld fits that mold as well. It is hilarious when he takes over a press conference by asking and answering a series of his own questions.
People just need to keep a sense of humor. Sooner or later a Democrat will do something worth poking fun at again.
Comment by Brennan — Tuesday 27 September, 2005 @ 10:23