News is a joke

In a politically fired-up town such as Portland, and on a campus such as Portland State where the students are feisty and driven, the thought of a political rally might seem like a great idea to most. For some, this might have been the Rally to Restore Sanity. Alternatively you might have been a part of the March to Keep Fear Alive. Both of these are sound and noble causes to support around election time, as sanity is an important part of helping to keep society functioning, and fear…which keeps us…safe.

Some of you may have raised an eyebrow at that last sentence there, and that’s okay, because the masterminds behind these two landmark political events were none other than the brilliant comic minds of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

It has been said that more and more people are getting their news from shows such as “The Daily Show.” Comedy has become a source from which we get our news, as well as some of the greatest commentary on our news outlets. While many may ask what has gone wrong with America when a large number of people receive their news through a comedy outlet, perhaps we should be asking, what is wrong with our news outlets that makes a satirical performance a reasonable source?

It would be wrong to call it anything but comedy—at the top-right corner of the website for “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and “The Colbert Report” with Stephen Colbert you will notice a big badge for Comedy Central, not a news corporation.

It all began on Sept. 16, when Stewart announced the Rally to Restore Sanity—a very real event for which Stewart was calling out to viewers to attend a rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Oct. 30. Stewart spoke of how weary he was with those whom he referred to as the “loud minority”—the kind of protestors who would rather scream at opponents and carry signs of politicians with Hitler moustaches rather than be coherent and civil about the issues.  

The rally was meant simply to be a protest that didn’t involve the usual ritual of political mud-slinging and noisy demonstrations. One of the signs for the rally which Stewart displayed on his show summed up the message of the rally stating, “I disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler.”

Colbert responded by announcing on his show, “The Colbert Report” which airs directly after “The Daily Show,” that he would host the March to Keep Fear Alive, which mockingly aimed to counter the Rally to Restore Sanity, hosted at the same time and location.

The amazing thing about the whole event and the many satellite rallies held in other cities, including one here in Portland, is that it was a very real and significantly attended rally, not hosted by a real news organization or a political personality, but rather two comedians who do nothing more than poke fun at the news. It shows that there is a significant  population out there that simply wants the who, what, when and where of the news, and not a slant or speculative screams of TV personalities such as Bill O’Reilly. This population of news consumers would like a little less agenda, and a lot more, well, information—plain and

simple news.

Both shows have branched out into a new and more sobering field, bringing their comedy with them of course. They often feature notable politicians such as Condoleezza Rice, Bill Clinton and John McCain. Even President Obama was a recent guest on “The Daily Show.”

The reality is that there are a number of us that get our news and knowledge of current events from Comedy Central. It’s easy to understand why. For example, the FOX News website actually has a tab for “Terror” articles. Watching FOX makes it easy to see how the March to Keep Fear Alive was inspired.

FOX’s lack of quality makes it an easy target as a lofty news source, but it is not alone. One can also look to CNN, a station that will admittedly report some essential information, but then seems more interested in how many ways they can report that same information through holographic technology.

So as long as we’re getting our news from comedians, we may want to consider how badly our major news outlets, the ones who should actually be providing us our information, have become. On the other hand, if FOX had a conscience, then “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” might not have too much material to work with. ?