Is Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart the new Edward R. Murrow? That question has been coming up in the wake of his increasing impact on the media and, some say, even helping whip up the momentum for the bill to help 911 get passed in Congress. Some will say it’s the times: a lot of young people find news shows boring and get their info from a show such as Stewarts. Some will say it’s due to his talent: going back to the time of Will Rogers there have been entertainers whose comments on politics got people not just laughing but thinking. And some (such as yours truly) will argue it is also due to the battered mainstream media — trying to keep audience share as it tries to compete with ideological talk shows, Internet websites that attract people who go to them because they already agree with the viewpoint and take on the news, the increasing trend in narrowcasting, new info technologies and news budget cutbacks.
For a good roundup on the question of whether Stewart is the next Edward R. Murrow GO HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.