Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Blog 5 - Dr. Massie - Mass Communication

In “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (air date: Monday Jan. 5. 2015), Stewart had a discussion which involved who is running for the presidential position. Jim Webb, Melvin Dickpictweet, Bernie Sanders, Chris Christy, Huckabee, Hillary Clinton, and Jeb Bush are six candidates who Stewart made fun of that are running for this position. He made a few jokes about each candidate but nothing serious came out of this viewing. After the commercial Stewart then discussed the issues involving the new movie at the time; The Interview staring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Stewart goes on explaining how The Interview was canceled because Korean hackers threatened to launch 911 style attacks on theaters who showed the movie. Stewart was not happy about this and made a joke about interfering with our holiday releases.  
He slammed Korea and made jokes about how the United States has upped their security so North Korea does not smuggle arms in. Stewart started making fun of the different sanctions that the United States is taking caution with North Korea. He then continues how the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, made “the list” and can no longer attend our universities. After this discussion, Stewart brings in Steven Brill author of “America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System”. Stewart and Brill spoke seriously and in joke about his book. They talked about Obama and Obama care and how Brill needed open heart surgery. He had an aneurysm in his heart. Stewart asks, “Why do you think President Obama wants to kill you”. The audience laughed and they continued the conversation how the NSA planted the aneurysm as a joke. Overall Stewart is a funny guy and has a good show but I could never take it seriously.

I believe “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” degrades news and makes serious topic appear less serious. I understand it is supposed to be a funny show but It makes everything lighter than it should be. America should not be making fun of who is running for president. They should take that seriously. By making it a joke, Americans could elect someone who was mentioned in this show because it was funny, not because of the work they had accomplished if any at all. A second issue I have with this show because of how it degrades news would be the fact that they are joking about The Interview. It is a serious matter already that Korea is upset with America for releasing it, let alone Jon Stewart making fun of the movie even more.


Overall this is a fun show to watch but it is something that could be a problem with our news. If people decide to watch The Daily Show with John Stewart and take what he says seriously; this could be a problem. There are more disadvantages than there are advantages to this show. It would be nice to see him make fun of lighter issues going on rather than the serious one within our country. 

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