News Satire – A Critique, A Joke, More Info than the News Being Satirized

Wow!  How long since my last post?  104 Days.  It’s not what I say; it’s the writing experience that is important – and I’m doing neither (saying or writing).

It’s like I want to be a music writer but I don’t practice whatever musical instrument I’m suppose to be accomplished at  – not to end a sentence with a preposition – or a marathon runner who does not run every week.  Writing is no different than being musically accomplished or a runner and I’m not practicing it.

Blogging is writing and I’m doing neither.

Anyway for the task at hand…

The scrutiny being given Jon Stewart’s leaving The Daily Show deserves some comment if nothing else does.  Especially after seeing a post on something called The (Stony Brook) Press – whatever that is.

This is what I got when I clicked on “about” at this Stony Brook site:

The Stony Brook Press is a monthly campus magazine staffed exclusively by students at Stony Brook University. We serve as an open forum for the students, and our content includes news, features, arts and entertainment, humor, opinion, and sports.

The thing is…I agree completely with those yahoos suffering a higher education out on Long Island.

I didn’t have normal access to HBO.  When HBO offers a free weekend, I always record John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, and I have to agree – even with my limited viewing – Oliver’s news satire is way better than The Daily Show or Wilmore’s Nightly Show.
Regardless of which is better or worse, news satire is as needed as political satire – which when satirizing Fox News’ reporting, it is the same thing.

Repeating an often made Internet comment:
Fox News is not conservative; it is Republican (Period!).  While there is nothing wrong with that – we’ve had bias news since Ben Franklin’s press – they should at least include a disclaimer that Fox News is spinning the news in the Republican Party’s favor.  That is if Fox News is an ethical journalistic organization – which of course, it is not.

Also, this is bouncing around the Internet:

Fox News used to work for the Republican Party.  Now, the Republican Party works for Fox News.  Watch for this in the upcoming Presidential primaries and general election.

At any rate, with the upcoming election and my fascination with journalists’ reporting of it, I talked my better half into getting HBO.  Maybe we can watch a boring movie or two or one of those new series that are now being shown exclusively on providers like HBO to justify the increase cost of premium cable, but I will have weekly access to Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.

While I can see John Oliver’s special report from the show on YouTube, what I am missing is literally last week’s news review and satire.  Oliver’s special reports and stories – like the one sited in the Stony Brook posting on Oliver’s take on Snowden exposé in the Guardian and NYTimes – are readily available on “YourTube”, but it’s the review of weekly events that I want to see.

I’m not the only to notice this.  The Internet is abuzz with it.  With the Daily Show’s future in question, liberal satire is being probed.  A recentpost (10/01/09) in the UK’s Telegraph (no less) says liberal satire is an oxymoron.  I have posted before that Liberal Bias was oxymoronic but what the hey.

A point being said by Stewart’s fixation on Fox News not in words but action is that while liberals by their nature may offer way more material for a good joke, Roger Ailes’ Fox News Republican cavalcade just keep stealing Stewart’s attention.

A point not being made on the news satire shows but should is Fox News’ charges of liberal bias in the rest of the press.  While sloppy journalism is all over the place, not all sloppy journalism is tainted by liberalism, but that is the way Fox News spins it.  And that too is working really well.  However sloppy bad journalism is just that. It’s just bad journalism.

There is nothing sloppy about Fox News’ journalism.  It has a purpose and is finely crafted.  And it is popular.  Whether it was Ailes or one of his advisors, they know if you report news as confirmation of people’s expectation, rating will soar.

I hope the new guy at the Daily Show will sharpen up its presentation.  Stewart seem to use male adolescent humor a a lot.  News satire needs all the help it can get and that is no joke.