Beyond what gets covered, perhaps a more precise sense of the nature of The Daily Show as an information source comes from looking at how subjects are treated. Everyone in the news media covered the fact that the presidential campaign began so early in 2007. But rather than a chance to dash off to the races, for Stewart and company it was a chance to poke fun at a candidate\u2019s dubious choice of campaign slogan rather than speculating on her electoral chances.<\/p>\n\n
A year before the Iowa primary, for example, Hillary Clinton was already touting the slogan \u2018Let the Conversation Begin.\u2019 Stewart certainly did. On January 29 he started a conversation about her conversation. \u201cLook, this might not be the most politically correct thing to say, but I don\u2019t think that slogan\u2019s gonna help you with men\u2026I think the typical response will be, \u2018Now?\u2019 You might as well get on your campaign bus, the I-Think-We-Really-Need-To-Talk Express to unveil your new Iraq policy, \u2018America, let\u2019s pull over and just ask for directions.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n
When it came to the debate over Iraq, the show often homed in on party-line bickering or what were perceived to be public gaffes. <\/p>\n\n
A segment on January 22, for example, ridiculed President Bush\u2019s suggestion that in the ongoing war in Iraq, the American public has sacrificed a great deal: namely \u201cpeace of mind when they see terrible images of violence on TV every night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The Daily Show\u2019s Jason Jones: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rough. I mean, I can tell you my family has been through a lot in this war. I don\u2019t know if you know this. But we were a Gold Star family. That was the brand of TV we had. Seventy-two inches worth of heartache, Jon. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was two days ago. It was 1800 hours…We were slowly making our way towards ESPN when suddenly, two clicks north of Bravo, from out of nowhere\u2026from outta nowhere we see Charlie. Rose. He was talking to some guy about Iraq. And, it seemed like a drag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
An incredulous Stewart: \u201cSo? What happened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Jones: \u201cWe just flipped over and watched University of Wisconsin beat Illinois. That\u2019s right. You know, it was a really good game but man! Man, that Iraq story just bummed us out for a couple of seconds there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Some of the sharper satire suggests a clear point of view. Perhaps the most dominant recurring theme through the year was The Daily Show\u2019s criticism of the Bush Administration policy in Iraq. That criticism often came in language too raw for the news media to ever use.<\/p>\n\n
[the Administration]<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cAha! So that\u2019s how they can deny it!\u201d exclaimed Stewart, feigning sudden enlightenment. \u201cThey could play retarded. How could we know how much Al Qaeda was in Iraq before the invasion when we didn\u2019t know sh** about Iraq when we went in? This wasn\u2019t an invasion. It was a fact-finding mission. Hey! Did you know they\u2019re Muslim?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Questions about the acuity of Administration thinking was a recurring theme. On June 13, Daily Show \u201ccorrespondent\u201d Aasif Mandvi picked on the Administration\u2019s new strategy to arm the Sunnis. As a senior Iraq \u201ccorrespondent,\u201d he witnessed a U.S official handing weapons to a Sunni insurgent. Mandvi reported that he saw the man give his word that he would only use weapons to attack Al Qaeda. \u201cWe gave him the guns which he swore he\u2019d use to fight Al Qaeda. I saw him put his hand on the Bible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Bible? The Christian Bible?\u201d asked an incredulous Stewart. It took a while for enlightenment to dawn on Mandvi. \u201cAwh! Son of a b***h!\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cBut what\u2019re you gonna do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Amid the satire, there are elements to The Daily Show that might strike many viewers as journalistic in nature. High among these is the program\u2019s use of video\u2014including sometimes impressive culling of archival footage\u2014to contrast or puncture wavering rhetoric of politicians. <\/p>\n\n
On August 15, the show unearthed a 1994 clip of Vice President Cheney voicing opposition to a U.S. invasion of Iraq. <\/p>\n\n
Viewers saw the clip of Cheney telling a reporter, \u201cOnce you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein\u2019s government, then what\u2019re you going to put in its place?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Then Stewart responded, \u201c. . . 1994 Cheney makes an interesting point. If you take down Saddam\u2019s regime, what would you put in its place? It\u2019s the sort of question you could ponder for, say, nine years and still not come up with an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In 2007, the show also sent someone to Iraq, one of its \u201ccorrespondents,\u201d former Marine Corps reservist Rob Riggle. The purpose was comedic, but the fact that Riggle was actually in Iraq created a sense of something more, comedy with a sharper edge, something not merely amusing. In his satellite feeds from Iraq, one of Riggle\u2019s favorite targets was the way military operations in Iraq were named. In keeping with this joke, Riggle gave over-the top monikers to his own segment, such as \u201cOperation Silent Thunder.\u201d The subtext, more than just a joke, was about the use of political language and military spin.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beyond what gets covered, perhaps a more precise sense of the nature of The Daily Show as an information source comes from looking at how subjects are treated. Everyone in the news media covered the fact that the presidential campaign began so early in 2007. But rather than a chance to dash off to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-90413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":90445,"word_count":872,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/a-focus-on-satire\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":90445,"title":"Journalism, Satire or Just Laughs? \u201cThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart,\u201d Examined","slug":"journalism-satire-or-just-laughs-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-examined","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/journalism-satire-or-just-laughs-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-examined\/","is_active":false},{"id":90452,"title":"What\u2019s On\u2014And What\u2019s Not On\u2014The Daily Show","slug":"whats-onand-whats-not-onthe-daily-show","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/whats-onand-whats-not-onthe-daily-show\/","is_active":false},{"id":90413,"title":"A Focus on Satire","slug":"a-focus-on-satire","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/a-focus-on-satire\/","is_active":true},{"id":90459,"title":"Making Fun of the Press","slug":"making-fun-of-the-press","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/making-fun-of-the-press\/","is_active":false},{"id":90464,"title":"Attacking Politicians: Who Gets Ridiculed?","slug":"attacking-politicians-who-gets-ridiculed","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/attacking-politicians-who-gets-ridiculed\/","is_active":false},{"id":90375,"title":"The Daily Show is NOT Journalism","slug":"the-daily-show-is-not-journalism","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/the-daily-show-is-not-journalism\/","is_active":false},{"id":90385,"title":"Like a Cable Talk Show","slug":"like-a-cable-talk-show","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/like-a-cable-talk-show\/","is_active":false},{"id":90398,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-65-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/methodology-65-2\/","is_active":false},{"id":90407,"title":"Topline","slug":"topline-43","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/topline-43\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":90413,"title":"A Focus on Satire","slug":"a-focus-on-satire","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/a-focus-on-satire\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},"next_post":{"id":90459,"title":"Making Fun of the Press","slug":"making-fun-of-the-press","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/making-fun-of-the-press\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},"previous_post":{"id":90452,"title":"What\u2019s On\u2014And What\u2019s Not On\u2014The Daily Show","slug":"whats-onand-whats-not-onthe-daily-show","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/whats-onand-whats-not-onthe-daily-show\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"pagination_items":[{"id":90445,"title":"Journalism, Satire or Just Laughs? \u201cThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart,\u201d Examined","slug":"journalism-satire-or-just-laughs-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-examined","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/journalism-satire-or-just-laughs-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-examined\/","is_active":false,"page_num":1},{"id":90452,"title":"What\u2019s On\u2014And What\u2019s Not On\u2014The Daily Show","slug":"whats-onand-whats-not-onthe-daily-show","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/whats-onand-whats-not-onthe-daily-show\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},{"id":90413,"title":"A Focus on Satire","slug":"a-focus-on-satire","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/a-focus-on-satire\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},{"id":90459,"title":"Making Fun of the Press","slug":"making-fun-of-the-press","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/making-fun-of-the-press\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},{"id":90464,"title":"Attacking Politicians: Who Gets Ridiculed?","slug":"attacking-politicians-who-gets-ridiculed","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/attacking-politicians-who-gets-ridiculed\/","is_active":false,"page_num":5},{"id":90375,"title":"The Daily Show is NOT Journalism","slug":"the-daily-show-is-not-journalism","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/the-daily-show-is-not-journalism\/","is_active":false,"page_num":6},{"id":90385,"title":"Like a Cable Talk Show","slug":"like-a-cable-talk-show","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/like-a-cable-talk-show\/","is_active":false,"page_num":7},{"id":90398,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-65-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/methodology-65-2\/","is_active":false,"page_num":8},{"id":90407,"title":"Topline","slug":"topline-43","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/05\/08\/topline-43\/","is_active":false,"page_num":9}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Journalism, Satire or Just Laughs? “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Examined","parent_id":90445},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"A Focus on Satire","description":"Beyond what gets covered, perhaps a more precise sense of the nature of The Daily Show as an information source comes from looking at how subjects are treated. Everyone in…","og_title":"A Focus on Satire","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"complete","message":"No image blocks in content.","data":null},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 16 paragraphs.","data":{"count":16}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130467,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90413\/revisions\/130467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=90413"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=90413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}