Chris Blattman

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Are journalists serious?

After Jon Stewart of Daily Show fame came fourth in a popular poll of “most admired journalists”, the Pew Research Center decided to mount a study to see if Stewart passed journalistic muster.

Their conclusion: the Daily Show is highly selective in what it covers, is partisan, focuses mostly on U.S. politics to the exclusion of other stories, and it often blurs truth and fiction.

So far this sounds exactly like journalism to me. But the report does not have a sense of irony. The subtext of the report reads differently, however: the Daily Show does not pass journalistic muster.

Two things apparently make the Daily Show stand out from the others. One, Stewart is funny. I agree. I might argue that Fox News and MSNBC are also funny, although (admittedly) in a depressing crying laugh kind of way.

Two, according to one summary, “the Daily Show not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke.”

Now we might be on to something.

The full study is here. Hat tip to the Monkey Cage.

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