Is Fake News Better Than Real News?

By Paul Gessing

Much has been made about the alleged biases of various cable news networks. Fox News Channel is of course the Republican, pro-Bush, flag-waving channel and CNN is known among conservatives as the “Clinton News Network” and is believed to be a handmaiden of the Democratic Party. Sure, there are other cable news stations out there, most notably MSNBC, but perhaps the best cable “news” show really isn’t “news” at all. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is – through critical analysis and biting jokes at the expense of politicians and their media lapdogs (especially cable news) – filling a critical void that has been completely ignored within the mainstream media.

Stewart has often criticized cable news in general, leveling his blows through skits like “Great Moments in Punditry as Read by Children” in which six and seven year old kids crack up laughing at the silliness of Paul Begala, Robert Novak, and Anne Coulter. In another episode Stewart interviewed CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and did more to illustrate the mainstream media’s poor coverage of the Iraq war than all of the TV pundits and “critical self-analysis” combined. When Stewart accused Blitzer’s CNN and the mainstream media in general of “groupthink” and then more appropriately “mental retardation,” Blitzer had no response and could not tell Stewart anything that would improve his coverage next time politicians start beating the war drums.

Although 2004 had already been a good year for The Daily Show, in October Stewart cemented his place in television lore when he courageously appeared on Crossfire with Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. Rather than sucking up to the two pundits of whom Stewart had been critical of in the past, he had the guts to tell the them straight to their faces that their show’s “partisan hackery was hurting America.” Stewart sparred with the bow-tie wearing Carlson throughout their discussion and wrapped the love-fest up by calling Carlson a “dick.” Stewart was vindicated this January when Crossfire was cancelled.

Better still; in canceling the show CNN President Jon Klein called for his network to “get back to more round-the-clock news coverage and avoid the partisan bickering that had come to dominate much of its programming.” Klein went on to say, “I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp, I doubt that when the President sits down with his advisers they scream at him to keep up to date on all of the issues, I don’t know why we don’t treat the audience with the same respect.”

As if it were not bad enough for the cable networks that Jon Stewart’s criticism
led to the cancellation of Crossfire, it is interesting to note that Daily Show viewers are more intelligent and better informed than those who watch the “real news.” Despite Fox News Channel anchor Bill O’Reilley’s repeated accusations during a 2004 interview that Stewart’s audience amounted to a bunch of “stoned slackers,” it turns out that the reverse is actually true. According to Neilsen Media Research, viewers of Jon Stewart’s show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch The O’Reilly Factor.

Even more surprising than the education advantage among Stewart’s audience is the disparity in knowledge of current events. According to a 2004 study by the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey, young viewers of The Daily Show are more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don’t. According to the same study, Daily Show viewers have greater political knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers – even when education, party identification, following politics, watching cable news, receiving campaign information online, age, and gender are taken into consideration.”

Jon Stewart’s show outperforms its mainstream counterparts, not just because it is funny, but because it – unlike other outlets – gleefully points out the abundant hypocrisy of our political leaders. One typically great moment in a recent episode came when Stewart showed a film clip of Congressman Tom Davis explaining the importance of his investigation of steroid use in baseball. [Clip of “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert: “What authority does your committee have? Could you look into drugs in Hollywood, drugs in the music industry?” Davis: “Rule Ten, clause 4C2 gives us the ability to hold a hearing on any matter at any time.”] To this, Stewart commented, “Any matter at any time? Enron, Halliburton, no WMDs, Abu Ghraib? And you went with baseball? Way to go.”

Stewart’s influence is unmistakable and it is not likely to wane in the near future. According to February 2005 figures from Nielsen Media Research, new episodes of the show attracted an average of 1.5 million viewers for the month – up 32 percent from February 2004. That was more than twice the size of CNN’s average prime time audience that month and almost equal to the prime time viewership for the Fox News Channel. Here’s hoping Stewart will be around for several more years using his program as a platform to poke his media counterparts and politicians in elected office in the eye.

Paul J. Gessing is a senior editor of the Free Liberal and sits on the Board of Directors of the Center for Liberty and Community. He works in public policy and is finishing his MBA at the University of Maryland. Paul has previously worked for the Marijuana Policy Project and for Congressman Bernie Sanders. His writings have been published in the Washington Post, Washington Times, and U.S. News & World Report.