Jon Stewart – Lion Killer – Epic 8 Minute CNBC Takedown
March 6th, 2009 by Dave Allen
I am still reeling after watching the latest amazing “news” piece from Jon Stewart. I wrap “news” in inverted commas because this man is a comedian and a great one at that. So why is he more important than any of the talking heads on cable TV news and political shows?
Here’s why – In an era where newspapers are dying and mainstream TV and cable media are flailing around trying to increase viewers by using limp content, Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Daily News points out that “Great research trumps good access to the powerful.” In essence all Stewart’s team did was juxtapose past remarks on the economy from people like the CEO of Ford or blowhard and so called ’stocks wizard’ Jim Cramer and even bigger blowhard CNBC’s Rick Santelli [who in a magnificent performance gets traders on the floor to boo President Obama because "we shouldn't be paying for those folks who can't pay their mortgages, those losers!"] and compared them to more recent statements to show how hypocritical these people have been and continue to be. Great research all available at any journalist’s fingertips online. Stewart’s team just did the research and then they are not afraid to have Jon go out and skewer these people not lionize them.
You must watch the Stewart video.
And here’s an extract from Will Bunch’s very prescient article:
As briefly noted here earlier, the most talked-about journalism of the day wasn’t produced by the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek or NPR. It was Jon Stewart’s epic, eight-minute takedown on last night’s “Daily Show” of CNBC’s clueless, in-the-tank reporting of inflatable bubbles and blowhard CEOs as the U.S. and world economies slowly slid into a meltdown. You can quibble about Stewart’s motives in starting the piece — after he was spurned for an interview by CNBC’s faux populist ranter Rick Santelli — but you can’t argue with the results.
The piece wasn’t just the laugh-out-loud funniest thing on TV all week (and this was a week in which NBC rebroadcast the SNL “more cowbell” sketch, so that’s saying a lot) but it was exquistely reported, insightful, and it tapped into America’s real anger about the financial crisis in a way that mainstream journalism has found so elusive all these months. As one commenter on the Romenesko blog noted earlier today, “it’s simply pathetic that one has to watch a comedy show to see things like this.”
But that’s not all. The Stewart piece also got the kind of eyeballs that most newsrooms would kill for in this digital age — planted atop many, many major political, media and business Web sites — and the kind of water-cooler chatter that journalists would crave in any age. In a time when newspapers are flat-out dying if not dealing with bankruptcy or massive job losses, while other types of news orgs aren’t faring much better, the journalistic success of a comedy show rant shouldn’t be viewed as a stick in the eye — but a teachable moment. Why be a curmudgeon about kids today getting all their news from a comedy show, when it’s not really that hard to join Stewart in his own idol-smashing game.
Read the rest of the Will Bunch article here. It’s a great read for anyone in media.
Tags: CNBC, Jim Cramer, Jon Stewart, Media, NemoHQ, newspapers, Philadelphia Daily News, Rick Santelli, Will Bunch
March 10th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Indeed, Stewart’s team juxtaposed imagery and clips to make their point. That’s hardly diligent research. And, you offer no data whatsoever to support your declaration that the piece got “eyeballs” that journalists want. Stewart’s act is a good one and it relies on the real world behavior of plenty of folks up and down the political spectrum. But, it is no different than the right wing bloviators, e.g. Limbaugh, Hannity, that dominate a different part of the political entertainment spectrum.
Stewart did all of us who enjoy the Opinion sections of newspapers a great service by offering us his opinion of the cable show’s weak and skewed attempts to report anything. He did it in a most entertaining way. That younger audiences rely upon him or anyone else whose primary focus is entertainment is hardly comforting and certainly no remedy for the problems confronting journalism.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Hi Mark,
I think the main point here is that Stewart proves a simple point – that access to the powerful, in front of whom journalists often fawn, is no longer required – in the past that access hasn’t always resulted in good journalistic practice. The powerful on Wall St have merely proven that they know nothing about complicated derivatives just like the rest of us! So when journalists go kowtow to these greedy folks they are committing the same sins that Judith Miller of the NY Times did when she was hoodwinked by the Bush administrations in its rush to war in Iraq. Intelligent journalists exposed to this powerful magnet seem to get weak kneed…
At least Jon Stewart has the moxie to expose and confront people in power. He doesn’t need to be liked nor does he need access to those that withhold access on a whim.
He may be no less of a bloviator than Hannity and Limbaugh as you say, but at least he’s funny. And you’re right, what he does is definitely not a remedy for for the problems confronting journalism but if journalists could stop blaming the web for their newspaper’s travails they might be able to see the trees and the forest (no pun intended.)