Why Jon Stewart and the Daily Show Terrify Politicians
I read an article recently about "The 'Daily Show' Generation" in USA Today. The article itself was by a college professor analyzing a study by two other college professors about The Daily Show effect on young people. The two professors from Eastern Carolina University claim to have found that watching the show made younger voters more cynical.
That conclusion about a liberal satirical TV show won't surprise you if you've ever lived in the backwoods of eastern North Carolina. You're talking "Tobacco Road" and Jesse Hemms country. (The spelling of the last name is the way it's pronounced there).
The contemporary dictionary definition of a cynic is "a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view." You can see that the definition is broad enough so that at some point, and sometimes with good reason, we are all cynics to some extent.
I will leave the academic discussions about whether a young person watches the show because he or she is already a cynic, or whether the show makes them cynical, to the academics.
The interesting point the show raises is why politicians of both parties are so afraid of the show that academics are allowed to use state funds or grants to write studies about it.
The way politicians practice their profession oozes the very characteristics that produce a cynic, as defined, e.g., "...only selfishness motivates human action..." Yet it isn't really cynicism that politicians fear from the voters. Cynicism about politicians has been around long before TV or radio, let alone The Daily Show. Good politicians know how to manipulate cynicism to their advantage.
What really terrifies a politician is being the object of ridicule. Humorous ridicule has the most destructive, least reperable, effect on a politician's career. It's one thing to be the object of hate, distrust, or even cynicism. It's quite another to be the object of ridicule.
An object of ridicule is never taken seriously. A politician cannot survive if perceived as a walking joke. Making politicians the objects of humorous ridicule is The Daily Show stock-
in-trade. That's what really terrifies politicians about Jon Stewart and company.
I can't think of a better example than ex-President, then Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton. He knew that ridicule like Stewart's is anathema to a politician's career. He was ridiculed by Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show host, who had fifty times the viewers (of all ages) as Stewart.
Carson made a number of jokes about Clinton's long-winded speech at the Democratic Convention in 1988. Clinton didn't care that he was actually booed by fellow Democrats after his speech. The consummate politician was terrified, however, when the renowned Johnny Carson started cracking jokes about his performance and making him the object of ridicule. He knew Carson's ridicule, and his nationwide audience, could ruin his political career.
Clinton and his people frantically and insistently badgered Carson to have him on the show. Clinton saved his career by appearing on the show, playing his sax, and making self-deprecating jokes about the speech himself. After that Carson dropped the jokes. It serves as an object lesson from a master of politics that becoming the object of ridicule can be fatal to your political career.
Despite the study, which seems rather pointless to me, I don't think a little cynicism in politics hurts the young or the old. I prefer Ambrose Bierce's definition of a cynic from his "Devil's Dictionary," anyway.
He defined a cynic as "A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." I hope we all have a little bit of that in us as the mid-term elections approach.
That conclusion about a liberal satirical TV show won't surprise you if you've ever lived in the backwoods of eastern North Carolina. You're talking "Tobacco Road" and Jesse Hemms country. (The spelling of the last name is the way it's pronounced there).
The contemporary dictionary definition of a cynic is "a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view." You can see that the definition is broad enough so that at some point, and sometimes with good reason, we are all cynics to some extent.
I will leave the academic discussions about whether a young person watches the show because he or she is already a cynic, or whether the show makes them cynical, to the academics.
The interesting point the show raises is why politicians of both parties are so afraid of the show that academics are allowed to use state funds or grants to write studies about it.
The way politicians practice their profession oozes the very characteristics that produce a cynic, as defined, e.g., "...only selfishness motivates human action..." Yet it isn't really cynicism that politicians fear from the voters. Cynicism about politicians has been around long before TV or radio, let alone The Daily Show. Good politicians know how to manipulate cynicism to their advantage.
What really terrifies a politician is being the object of ridicule. Humorous ridicule has the most destructive, least reperable, effect on a politician's career. It's one thing to be the object of hate, distrust, or even cynicism. It's quite another to be the object of ridicule.
An object of ridicule is never taken seriously. A politician cannot survive if perceived as a walking joke. Making politicians the objects of humorous ridicule is The Daily Show stock-
in-trade. That's what really terrifies politicians about Jon Stewart and company.
I can't think of a better example than ex-President, then Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton. He knew that ridicule like Stewart's is anathema to a politician's career. He was ridiculed by Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show host, who had fifty times the viewers (of all ages) as Stewart.
Carson made a number of jokes about Clinton's long-winded speech at the Democratic Convention in 1988. Clinton didn't care that he was actually booed by fellow Democrats after his speech. The consummate politician was terrified, however, when the renowned Johnny Carson started cracking jokes about his performance and making him the object of ridicule. He knew Carson's ridicule, and his nationwide audience, could ruin his political career.
Clinton and his people frantically and insistently badgered Carson to have him on the show. Clinton saved his career by appearing on the show, playing his sax, and making self-deprecating jokes about the speech himself. After that Carson dropped the jokes. It serves as an object lesson from a master of politics that becoming the object of ridicule can be fatal to your political career.
Despite the study, which seems rather pointless to me, I don't think a little cynicism in politics hurts the young or the old. I prefer Ambrose Bierce's definition of a cynic from his "Devil's Dictionary," anyway.
He defined a cynic as "A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." I hope we all have a little bit of that in us as the mid-term elections approach.
posted by Marshall Darts at
1:18 PM
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