The Daily Show [email protected] & : Is The Daily Show Biased?

My Findings

Jon Stewart and his team have the luxury of editing clips to fit their needs, portraying a likable liberal news anchor and favorable message among Democrats.

Stewart will utilize the news box, having the Fox News logo appear alongside him as well as pictures of Fox News reporters. This imagery will enhance Stewart’s joke enforcing his mocking of In light of ’s announcement to leave Fox. The Daily Show, reporters and commentators began examining his time on the program. Megyn Kelly, from During the program, Stewart's Fox News, said, “I don’t think, overall, he has been a dialogue will also draw attention force for good, because I think, especially, in his later to Fox News, associating the years, he got a little nasty.” Kelly, among various others, organization with a negative vocalized concerns about The Daily Show due to the connotation. These references program’s selective editing, making it appear as though, will be both long-winded being a “they (Fox News) were not grounded.” One reporter part of his monologue or quick claimed, “Jon Stewart is poisoning the Republican one-liners. brand.” Jon Stewart’s rebuttal to this comment was asking, “How do you poison a cyanide factory?” The Daily Show makes reference This is their genius. They purport to want to fix to Fox News on a regular basis, things, but conservatives are not looking to make approximate ninety-two percent of education more rigorous and informative, or the time, citing the news channel science more empirical or verifiable, or voting in almost every episode for the more representative, or the government more month of March 2014, excluding efficient or effective. They just want all those one episode, March 27, 2014. things to reinforce their partisan ideological conservative viewpoints. Because, in their minds, There were a total of thirteen the opposite of bad isn’t good; the opposite of episodes for the month and twelve bad is ‘conservative.’… They judge solely on the had references to Fox News. level of conservative content in everything. It’s their only litmus test” (Stewart).

1 The Daily Show [email protected]

The Daily Show first aired on Comedy Central on July 22, 1996, with Craig Kilborn as the host, but on January 11, 1999, Jon Stewart took over and the show found its satirical voice.

Satirical programs must be counted alongside liberal news outlets on television. For instance, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Last Week Tonight, Late Night, and Saturday Night Live, all have liberal themes. The Daily Show has proven to be In regards to fake news programs, The Daily Show is an effective program in a variety the most well known. The program airs on Comedy of manners, but there may also be Central, four days a week, Monday through Thursday, negative effects as well. “and is prone to taking weeks off for regular sabbaticals where repeats are aired” (Pew Research Center’s published an Journalism Project Staff). article that was inspired by the Pew Research Center citing that, The show is the embodiment of satire, which “the survey respondents who “according to scholar George Test, (includes) the seemed to know the most about ingredients are aggression, play, and what’s going on…were likely to judgment” (Dagnes). The Daily Show is also considered be viewers of fake news programs to be a politainment program, being a “hybridization of like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show comedy of politics” (Feldman, Lewiserwitz, and and The Colbert Report” (Seele). Maaibach). The program is formulaic in how they deliver the news. “Baym observed that each episode of Similarly, according to the The Daily Show begins with “the satire news update,” is National Annenberg Election followed by one “parody news reports,” and “concludes Survey, people who tune into The with the daily interview,” (Trier 600). Daily Show, on a regular basis, know more about the electoral On average, Jon Stewart mocked and referenced Fox News process and modern day events in more so than any other channel or program. Stewart mentioned comparison to people who read Fox seventeen times compared to C-SPAN as the second most newspapers (Long). referenced at eight different times. For the month of March But, taking into account the liberal 2015, it was used nearly twice as much as CNN, three times bias on the program, it is likely more than CNN, and ten times more than ABC. that the audience is mostly comprised of Democrats, leaving both Independents and Republicans un accounted for. According to The Daily Show, Fox News is composed of Republican extremists and reporters who are inherently negative about the Obama presidency. This alienates a significant number of viewers and voters.

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