Daily Show host blasts media for treating the “most mundane bulls**t” as “Earth-shattering”
Comedian Jon Stewart on Monday launched into a fiery rant aimed at the media coverage of former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in the latest episode of “The Daily Show.”
Stewart spent a portion of Monday’s segment lambasting media outlets for their coverage of Trump’s criminal trial unfolding in Manhattan, in which prosecutors have alleged that he falsified business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
“This trial will obviously be a test of the fairness of the American legal system, but it’s also a test of the media’s ability to cover Donald Trump in a responsible way. A task they have acknowledged they’ve performed poorly in the past,” Stewart said before showing a montage of clips from notable outlets like CNN and MSNBC acknowledging that they need to give less obsessive attention to the former president’s every antic.
Cable news’ job is to report the news.
A few decades ago, we had this thing called Fairness Doctrine, which more or less forced news organizations to behave as, well, news organizations first and foremost. But then Reagan decided we didn’t need to worry about that anymore, and Fairness Doctrine was repealed, and the quality of news as a public service in the United States has declined precipitously since that point.
The Fairness Doctrine never applied to Cable News, only stuff broadcast over public airwaves.
If cable didn’t kill the Fairness Doctrine, the internet would have, I think.