Mister Pterodactyl
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
 
I’m continuing to enjoy the show in the ‘Sphere over the CBS memo thing. It’s pure comedy. I wonder, though; is anybody else reminded of the Ted Koppel/Jon Stewart confontation at the DNC in July? Because suddenly (i.e. as of two days ago) it keeps popping into my mind.

"From the start, Koppel made no secret of his distaste for Stewart's show: ‘A lot of television viewers—more, quite frankly, than I am comfortable with—get their news from […] The Daily Show.’
. . . .
Stewart … proceeded to outline his take on Kerry's nomination as the result of a year-long process of corporate branding: ‘John Kerry: now with lemon!’ A pretty standard line of argument for those of Stewart's generation … but to Koppel, it must have sounded like the sheerest nihilism.

. . . .
Stewart was careful to separate The Daily Show's mandate from that of ‘real’ television journalism: ‘I know my role. I am the dancing monkey.’ But that dodge didn't satisfy his broadcast-news interlocuter: ‘The reality of it is—and this is no joke—there are a lot of people out there who do turn to you.’ ‘Not for news,’ Stewart countered, and they were off again."


Stewart is trying to point out how the MSM has fallen for the "prespun narratives" of the left and right, meanwhile Koppel seems to have a problem with nontraditional news sources. [But y'know, I can't even remember the last time I watched network news.] Not certain, but I think the examples of Koppel and Rather say something about Old Media's sense of proprietorship over the news.

Side note: Belmont Club says that blogs are to modern media what the longbow was to medieval warfare. Groovy.

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