In 2006, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd penned a cover article for Rolling Stone entitled “America’s Anchors.” It featured Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert in a sentiment that was much less ironic than you might think. Back then, the idea of Stewart and Colbert being a primary source of trusted news seemed a bit novel, and perhaps a bit too progressive for some tastes.
In 2015, it seems like a very safe concept.
Jon Stewart admitted last year that he was offered NBC’s Meet the Press, but turned it down. His protege Colbert saw his Daily Show spin off become a tour de force onto itself and now Colbert went mainstream network television. Another Jon Stewart apprentice, John Oliver got his own and very successful show.
With the utter failure of Brian Williams we’re seeing that fake newsmen are sometimes more trustworthy than real newsmen. Williams, and NBC in general, were long overdue for the come uppance they’re finally receiving now. NBC has taken the idea of “shameless self-promotion” and cross promotion, and transform into prideful self-promotion, and then taking pride in having prideful promotion.
It’s sickening, and perhaps this is an instance of the ancient proverb “pride becomes before the fall.” It’s hard to find anyone at NBC to be a sympathetic figure. A 2012 Pew Research Center Poll found that the average positive believability rating” in the mainstream media had dipped to just 56% It was 62% in 2010, 71% in 2002.
I’m not the first media pundit to believe that Jon Stewart replacing Brian Williams should and could occur. Note the Business Insider column by Colin Campbell.
The New York Times’ labor reporter Steven Greenberg wrote on Twitter.
“As crazy as the ‘NBC Nightly News’ with Jon Stewart may sound, the timing of Stewart’s announcement and the length of Brian Williams’ suspension is oddly perfect for exactly that to happen,” mused Daily News columnist David Hinkley.
The Washington Post’s Terrence McCoy also noted the switch could “make sense.”
This coincidental and curious timing of Stewart’s announcement with Williams’ shameful suspension, makes this more than just food for thought. During his 16 years at the Daily Show, Jon Stewart consistently reminded us that one of the main tenets of journalism is actually flat out wrong.
In many cases, There are not “two sides to every story.”
Vaccines work, climate change is real, devastating and man made, and the music of Katy Perry is completely atrocious. We live in a world now where many people, MSNBC, but much more so Fox News Channel, believe that you are entitled to your own facts, not just your own opinions. CNN has an obvious bias too. They’re biased to desperately pander to anything that would lift up their retched ratings.
However, the truth is the truth; despite its absence in journalism today. 9/11 was not an inside job and the Earth is not 6,000 years old no matter how many people believe that or try really hard to believe that.
If I were picking the next host of The Daily Show, the individual who will have the extremely tough job of trying to replace Jon Stewart, I would go with Amy Schumer. Her series, Inside Amy Schumer, is brilliant and hysterically slaughters every sacred cow imaginable. Schumer’s take on both the oppressive annoyance of the drunken bachelorette party and the desperate-for-positive-press-celeb doing the well worn cliche pity prom date were two examples of her comedic genius.
Also, maybe The Daily Show needs a female host now? Maybe the program is overdue? And maybe the NBC Nightly News is ready for Jon Stewart to revive its reputation?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)
