From Bill Moyers’ interview with Jon Stewart, July 11, 2003:
MOYERS: I do not know… I have a confession.
STEWART: Alright.
MOYERS: I do not know whether you are practicing a old form of parody and satire.
STEWART: Uh-huh.
MOYERS: Or a new form of journalism.
STEWART: Well then that either speaks to the sad state of comedy or the sad state of news. I can’t figure out which one. I think, honestly, we’re practicing a new form of desperation. Where we just are so inundated with mixed messages from the media and from politicians that we’re just trying to sort it out for ourselves.
I like both of these men, Stewart and Moyers.
Armando
St. Louis, MO
The best humor is based on truths with which we can all relate. Of course, not all truth is funny (there are no good holocost jokes), but there are often ways to talk about difficult things in a funny way.
So it is not at all surprising that a comedy show about current events (aka fake news) talks in an honest way about our country and the world.
What makes the show so popular is that the (non-comedic) media DOES NOT talk about events in an honest way! Especially, the difficult, controversial, challenging, stupid things that go on in this country.
On top of that, the Bush administration IS SO INSANE! The president should be in jail for killing thousands of people in an unlawful and immoral war and the rest of the world knows it. But we in the U.S. go on like everything is business as usual — while the Emperor has no clothes!