The Daily Show Analysis

Reshaping News Broadcasting, One day at a Time

The 1990’s proved to be a successful decade for America as far as its economy. Following the end of the Cold War, the American economy thrived: unemployment rates rested at a mere 4% as a result of president Clinton’s creation of twenty-two million new jobs and rescue of over eight million Americans from poverty. Similar to any other decade, the 1990’s also facilitated controversial loss for Americans. Following events such as the murder of abortionist Dr. David Gunn, Clinton’s impeachment, and the Columbine mass shooting to name a few, news stations continued to broadcast these events through their biased lens’ and skew the perception of the American public. In the mid-nineties, television network

This intolerance served as the driving force behind the creation of The Daily Show. Over the show’s lifetime, it evolved from a light-hearted parody of television news presenters to a show that seriously critiqued the underlying messages of news programs themselves and undoubtedly skewed those in power. “It has established itself as a source of legitimate critical examination of American political and media culture, and of current events.” (Popkin) Stewart’s boldness grudgingly earned respect from many big names in politics, further contributing to his credibility.

Craig Kilborn aired as host for the first episode of the daily show on July 21st, 1996 and continued to host through the end of 1998. His successor, Jon Stewart, hosted the show from the 1990’s-2015. During these years of broadcasting, The Daily Show “made its mark as an American late-night talk and news satire television program… strongly focused on politics and the national media.” (Wikipedia) “Describing

Unless news shows with hypocritical statements are shown back to back, most audiences do not immediately catch the hypocrisy as most people do not openly contradict themselves within the same news program. Que Jon Stewart. Armed with video evidence, Stewart exposes the hypocrisy in the logic of the claims made and in the specific statements made by political figures. He accomplishes this many times by juxtaposing two statements made by the same person but on separate occasions. On one occasion, Dick Morris, a commentator for Fox News, is shown openly contradicting himself on issues of sexism. Stewart first shows him criticizing Hillary Clinton for acting as a victim of sexist comments, while he defends Sarah Palin against the very same sexist comments. (Comedy Central) Also examined is John McCain’s Policy Advisor, Nancy Pfotenhauer, participating in the hypocrisy. Pfotenhauer claims that same comments made about Sarah Palin are the “most outrageous double standards” Stewart then cuts to a compilation of her blatantly contradicting herself. Moreover, The Daily Show presents a significant contrast between the way conservative commentators discuss Democratic candidates and Republican candidates. Stewart calls the integrity and consistency of these news media outlets into question with the implication that their