Page 318 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

News Sat re: Comedy Central and Beyond |

themselves from the larger-than-life assertions and allegations that such ads tend
to peddle. And the debate coverage interrupted candidates’ carefully rehearsed
platitudes with irreverent response and objection. The various skits and inter-
views offered pure slapstick and transgressive humor, but also devious satire.

CrEaTing CyniCaL “sTonED sLaCkErs”?
Behind some commentators’ concern regarding the show was the supposition
that Daily Show viewers might be using the show as an outright substitute to
watching or reading the news. Since the rise of David Letterman, Jay Leno, and
Conan O’Brien in the 1990s, with their own fondness for little quips and even
preproduced segments regarding the day’s news, and given the overall popularity
of late-night talk shows with young viewers, some had correlated this with dis-
turbingly low voter turnout rates and political apathy amongst the young, worry-
ing that such shows might be creating a nation of ill-informed citizens gaining all
their news from jokes. This background murmur increased in volume in 2004,
when Stewart’s coverage of the presidential election and campaigning frequently
threw him into the public eye, and when news sources as various as Ted Koppel,
the Boston Globe, and Bill O’Reilly suggested that The Daily Show’s viewers were
learning all their news from the show. As Stewart himself has often been quick
to point out, the show’s prime commitment is to entertainment, and so segments
and jokes are constructed with comedy more than informational vigor in mind.
O’Reilly also charged Daily Show viewers with being little more than “stoned
slackers” who mindlessly accept Stewart’s own politics as their own. Moreover,

tiMeline

1993—Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher debuts on Comedy Central.
1996—The Daily Show debuts on Comedy Central with host Craig Kilborn.
1997—PI moves to ABC, becoming the first and only of the new wave of political satires
to exist on network television.
1999—Kilborn leaves The Daily Show and is replaced by Jon Stewart.
2000—The Daily Show reports at length on the presidential election, “Indecision 2000.”
2001—The Daily Show wins its first Peabody Award for its election coverage.
2002—PI cancelled by ABC, following advertiser boycott.
2003—Real Time with Bill Maher begins on HBO; Countdown with Keith Olbermann
debuts on MSNBC.
2004—Stewart appears on and attacks Crossfire; Dennis Miller begins on CNBC.
2005—Stewart hosts the Oscars; The Daily Show wins its second Peabody Award for its
election coverage.
2005—Stephen Colbert leaves The Daily Show to start The Colbert Report.
2006—Colbert delivers an infamous address to President G. W. Bush and the White
House Correspondents Association.