Goodreads Profile

All my book reviews and profile can be found here.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Jon Stewart's Long War with CNN is Getting Bitter, Petty - Esther Zuckerman - The Atlantic Wire

Jon Stewart's Long War with CNN is Getting Bitter, Petty - Esther Zuckerman - The Atlantic Wire:


It's ironic that even several years after his Crossfire appearance, in which Stewart make it clear that his is a *comedy* show, he continues to be taken seriously by the media as a news show. The idea that he could be a competitor reveals how little regard CNN must have for itself, a truly scary thought. He has every right to ridicule them for that alone.
The past year is replete with examples of CNN, Fox, most of the electronic media, etc., getting stories wrong because their sole desire is to be *first* with the story regardless of whether it's correct. They got the Supreme Court's decision on the health care act wrong simply because the reporters didn't read past the first paragraph. What passes for journalism now is a lazy, superficial, herd reporting and tweeting what the other guy said.. If you have any serious interest in what's happening you need to wait a couple of weeks/years and then read a book or specialized journal article about the event where an author has taken the time to do substantial and thoughtful research.
The Atlantic is usually one of those journals. This piece, regretfully is not. Given the numerous copy-editing failures, it matches the slap-dash efforts to get something up fast regardless of worth. It required little thought and no reporting.
I was saddened by this line: "something that he and the journalists he mocks share: they deeply care about what the American public should care..." Stewart has never claimed to be a journalist. He is mocking those who do claim to be journalists but clearly are not. This idea that a talking head reading something off a teleprompter and then sitting around *speculating* about events is journalism is the major problem. To call anyone in TV news a journalist is to confuse a tree with a twig.
BTW. At my house Wolf Blitzer is known as Wolfgang Blitzkrieg.


'via Blog this'

No comments: