“Daily Show” Viewers are the Best Informed
If you are a fan of Jon Stewart, then this is the best article ever. It turns out, according to an Annenberg survey, that viewers of the “Daily Show” are better-informed on election issues than people who read newspapers four days a week.
60 percent of “Daily Show” viewers answered all six questions correctly. Just 42 percent of those who read a newspaper four days a week aced the test. Only 40 percent of those who watch network news four days a week got every answer right.
The funny thing is, in case you don’t know the “Daily Show,” is that the “Daily Show” reports “fake news” … but apparently the “fake news” is sufficiently similar to “reality” that watching the fake news will tell you more than watching the real news. To be sure, the Bush Administration is sufficiently farcical that the “Daily Show” doesn’t have to make stuff up — Rumsfeld hands it to them on a silver podium.
And, unlike such “straight” sources like PBS, especially “NOW with Bill Moyers” the “Daily Show” is trying to be funny, which helps take the sting out of the evil at the top of our government. Watching PBS is like “George Bush did this, and then he did this, and then he did this, and then he did this, and he’ll just keep on doing it,” and you’re like “YARGH!! Life is futile and hopeless!! HULK SMASH!!” But on Comedy Central, you see the same thing and you say “Ahh … those wacky kids who run our government are so irritating, I can’t wait to vote against them. Well, time for bed …”
