Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't watch The Daily Show very often as I feel the show is little on the preachy side, and to be honest, I don't find Jon Stewart to be very funny to begin with. However I often wonder how many people often base their views off of what is presented to them by Stewart, and how many use him (along with Colbert) as their "news" sources.
I notice that a lot of young college age kids tend to watch him the most, this is his target audience. I also notice that most of them don't really understand political issues all that well, and they often cite Jon Stewart as one of, if not the main reason why they voted for Obama. I also notice that they usually have a misinformed view of Republicans and Conservatives, they think we're racists and all old white rich people. Anyone who lives in reality knows this isn't true at all, but I feel that Jon Stewart is at least somewhat responsible for these people's misinformed views.
I know you can say "but Jon makes fun of both sides'', while this is true, it's not entirely true. 90% of the time Stewart makes fun of Republicans/Conservatives, in which I notice he makes us look like "bad" guys. When it comes to Democrats/Liberals I notice that he tends to make fun of them for not being liberal enough. The show does have a liberal bias and anyone denying this is blind.
I often wonder how elections would play out if Stewart and Colbert weren't around? And why is there no Conservative equvilant to these shows? (I already know the answer to this one, just seeing if you guys do).
Also just to clarify: I don't have anything against Jon Stewart personally. I don't think he's a bad guy, I just find his show to be annoying and dishonest.
Last edited by FloridaPirate355; 08-29-2013 at 07:20 PM..
It may be TV, but it's not "just TV". It's a powerful media force, and it no doubt has a strong influence on people, especially those who cannot think for themselves.
And it's not a conspiracy theory, Jon Stewart was named one of the most influential people of our time. He no doubt holds a lot of sway over elections.
I'll throw in my two cents, based on my experience with college kids. I have two kids in college, and as part of my job at work, I've had to do training for a "recent-college-grad" program that my company has been running for the last 5 years. I typically train in classes of a 20, and the group is split about 60/40 guys to girls. These are kids that from all different fields of study in college.
College kids don't have a lot of "political experience", and they certainly aren't getting it at school. I can't necessarily blame them, as honestly they don't have much meaningful life experience either. It's the rare college kid that pays much attention to the world outside, and if they do, they've only been paying attention for a few years at best.
It's a perfect group to target, because they honestly don't have a good grasp on the big picture and are often easily influenced by celebrity. I would imagine that if Stewart were to suddenly start popping off about the awesome accomplishments of one Joseph Stalin, a large number of college kids would think he's the greatest thing since Russian vodka. I'm also shocked by two other things: One, these kids are almost to a person really lousy about doing math in their head on the fly. It's as if Google and calculators has limited their mathematical development. Part of the training is estimation and discounting, and wow, are the answers all over the board.
The second thing I noticed was that these kids have a difficult time connecting the dots with certain events. I don't know if that's a failure of the schools, their parents, themselves, or the media, but for some reason, that's a bit of a challenge. And these kids are solid achievers at college.
I consider myself to be a reasonably bright guy, but I have no idea why there is no Conservative equivalent. I'm assuming because the media doesn't want one?
Here's what they do: they brainwash them with propaganda in the media and then send them to college where they take out massive loans to fund the Life of Riley for their leftist professors.
I think Jon Stewart is a very bright man - he is a Leftist for sure and always aware of his audience and what get's him ratings (in his business, it's all about the ratings)...... BUT, he is a very bright man and has an understanding of what's going on - he does do his research. I think he is perfectly aware that his personal credibility is always on the line and that it could go "poof" at any moment.
He walks a tight wire, but at the end of the day - Jon Stewart is about Jon Stewart.
......and some of those professors are WAY out there. One of the girls in the group is a poli sci major. On break one day, she's telling me that in college, the professor basically taught them that Israel took all of the land from the Palestinians, and routinely kills the Palestinians for no apparent reason.
I don't watch The Daily Show very often as I feel the show is little on the preachy side, and to be honest, I don't find Jon Stewart to be very funny to begin with. However I often wonder how many people often base their views off of what is presented to them by Stewart, and how many use him (along with Colbert) as their "news" sources.
I notice that a lot of young college age kids tend to watch him the most, this is his target audience. I also notice that most of them don't really understand political issues all that well, and they often cite Jon Stewart as one of, if not the main reason why they voted for Obama. I also notice that they usually have a misinformed view of Republicans and Conservatives, they think we're racists and all old white rich people. Anyone who lives in reality knows this isn't true at all, but I feel that Jon Stewart is at least somewhat responsible for these people's misinformed views.
I know you can say "but Jon makes fun of both sides'', while this is true, it's not entirely true. 90% of the time Stewart makes fun of Republicans/Conservatives, in which I notice he makes us look like "bad" guys. When it comes to Democrats/Liberals I notice that he tends to make fun of them for not being liberal enough. The show does have a liberal bias and anyone denying this is blind.
I often wonder how elections would play out if Stewart and Colbert weren't around? And why is there no Conservative equvilant to these shows? (I already know the answer to this one, just seeing if you guys do).
Also just to clarify: I don't have anything against Jon Stewart personally. I don't think he's a bad guy, I just find his show to be annoying and dishonest.
I keep hearing this hear about college kids which I don't understand. The college kids I know or have know have always been aware of politics and what's going on with our country. Does this have do with what states you live in or something.
The Jon Stewart show is a a comedy show with a very left wing slant but it is based on fact and a good deal of research and extremely well done. Why some take issue with his show and not Hannity or Limbaugh, which are meant to be serious talk shows totally escapes me.
Very difficult to do a show 5 days week even though god knows there is plenty of material out there, great writers and very good delivery, if it is so easy to do you have to wonder why there isn't a right wing version. Even Lou Dobbs became an extremist when he went over to Fox, hardly a phrase that doesn't begin with Obama....
I have difficulty understanding some of the condescending comments from some of the posters above relative to colleges students, maybe they missed some of the more "mature" callers for Hannity and Glenn Beck.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
