I do miss the days before Colbert was easily recognizable and he could pull off those outrageous mock interviews and get some politicians to tie themselves up in knots. That said, despite the satirical base, the Daily show is often on the mark with its reports. Gonna miss it. Don’t think anyone can fill Stewart’s shoes, so don’t see it being incarnated in another format.
For an excellent example of John Oliver’s schtick - google John Oliver and “Miss America Pageant.” Fantastic!
His show has made a real impact on the “real” world: http://time.com/3674807/john-oliver-net-neutrality-civil-forfeiture-miss-america/
Oh I forgot about him! He was on One of the late night shows the other night. DH loves him.
Satire has a LONG history in political reporting… it certainly shouldn’t replace news, but should be paid attention to by people interested in how public opinions are swayed, made and unmade. It’s simply a part of the political process and has been that way for, if not millenia, than hundreds of years at least.
Swift would have agreed with you. And he would have been a bestselling author in the US. Courtesy of an endless supply of material.
I agree with whoever above said that reporters, broadcasters, politicians, corporate moguls, etc should all be held to essentially an equal standard.
Well, that doesn’t make any sense since they serve different masters and have different rules and purposes.
It makes perfect sense. They should be honest. This is not rocket science.
If they are held to different standards, then I’d give more leeway to a talking head than to a politician or corporate president (like the banking example noted above).
The argument seems to be if politicians lie then journalists should be allowed to lie. But, journalists are supposed to keep the politicians honest and without the press the general public would have no clue what elected official was or wasn’t lying so I don’t think that could work, really. If you want to call them talking heads as though they don’t matter, maybe that’s the problem.
Elected officials are accountable to voters who as we have seen upthread and elsewhere are willing to overlook stuff for their own reasons. That’s their choice, of course. Meanwhile, banking executives are accountable to a board of directors unless we are talking about crimes or something, but none of this is about crimes. I do think NBC kept BW because of ratings and overlooked the known falsehoods until they became a liability so I suppose it is a financial decision, ultimately.
His daughter is defending him publicly now. lol.
I think reporters should simply “report” the news accurately. This elevation to celebrity status makes little sense to me.
How about that CNN segment that was aired ad nauseam - think it was called “back to their roots” or something where they basically did a segment on the lives of each anchor. So I would tune in for a recap of the news and get Erin Burnett blubbering over some deceased relative in a Scottish pub with her long lost Uncle. And I actually like Erin but this is not the purpose of a network news station.
Journalists are supposed to keep the politicians honest?? LOL. That’s not in their job description. Some investigative reporters do a good job flushing out the dishonest garbage pulled by politicians, law enforcement, corporate bigwigs, you name it. But the politicians have to own their own behavior and integrity. Elected officials answer to their constituents. As they should. Corporate bigwigs answer to their board, shareholders, etc. But bottom line, if you lie, cheat or steal, you answer to yourself. Reporters are not law enforcement. They report the news.
The job description is to challenge authority. So, yes it actually is in the job description. They report the news which is not just the politician’s press release. They’re supposed to ferret out the truth. But, I agree it doesn’t happen much anymore. However, I see the BW debacle as a smallish correction in a bigger problem.
Also, I agree with harvestmoon about the whole celebrity journalist thing and that’s what really spun out of control here. Erin Burnett’s roots are not newsworthy nor are BW’s imaginary adventures in the field.
Challenge authority?? LOL. The different reporters/anchormen/women/investigative reporters/weathermen etc have different jobs. Some investigate, some report. There are many who simply read the news. Thats their job. Some give editorial commentary. Some dont. They are not all the same tasks. You know that.
Yup, I sure do. Brian Williams job description was to lead a network news division and serve as primary anchor. He didn’t do much investigating, which most news operations have cut down to next to nothing anyway, unfortunately. Weathermen as a rule do not consider themselves journalists although in the old days it was a foot in the door. And, I don’t know what women has to do with anything since there are no differing gender rules or standards these days. Editorials are opinion so lying would be a looser category although saying you were hit by a missile when you weren’t could still be problematic if you expect to be taken seriously.
Or fabricate it when convenient!
Good heavens I was just giving equal balance to anchormen and anchorwomen. Doesn’t take a lot of reading skills to understand that. We’ve heard your opinion about BW and his job responsibilities over and over and over.
Seems appropriate for Peter Pan to jump into the fray. After all, she should know a thing about fantasy. Too bad that Dickie Jones is no longer available.
Okay, well lying anchorwomen should also get the boot. lol. Also, this idea that news anchors just come in a read stuff for half an hour and ten million dollars a year is in the fantasy category along with Peter Pan.
Nobody said that. Strawman arguments are not productive. The only fantasy seems to be the belief that repeating the same thing ad nauseum contributes anything to a conversation.
People have called him a talking head which I think is actually insulting and he probably would, too. He shaped the culture of a news division and a bare minimum of credibility still matters. You are right, though. This is getting repetitive.