Jon Stewart & Co.’s Scathing Takedown of CNN’s ‘Reporting’
Our clip of the week is actually two clips from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” The first, part of the episode that originally aired Tuesday night, is Stewart’s extended, spot-on and depressingly funny rant about CNN’s coverage of the Washington Navy Yard shooting. After showing excerpts of the network’s real-time reporting, he concludes that CNN airs useless, speculation-ridden coverage not by mistake, but as a shameless ratings-generating strategy: “This is deliberate,” says Stewart. “The chaos they vomit onto the screen — the very thing we thought news organizations were created to clarify — is a feature, not a bug.”
In the second rather awesome clip, from the same episode, Stewart sends the “Daily Show” news team to CNN headquarters in New York to “report” from the scene there, CNN-style. (Some of the humor in the second clip pivots off of CNN coverage shown in the first clip, so you’re best off watching these in order.)
Head over to Ad Age to watch the clips.