The Political Persuasion of The Daily Show (Part 2)

A classmate stated, "I can definitely agree that he [Stewart] does not have a political agenda, because he spent the majority of his time making a mockery of politicians."  That declarative statement begs for critical analysis:   Are you sure that he does not have a political agenda, despite the fact that he mocks politicians? To answer that question with a degree of veracity requires some study to establish a trend. Watching the show one day probably does not give adequate exposure to the content to declare that he either does have a political agenda or he has no bias. What I would suggest is that to rule out the possibility of a clear bias or to establish the slant of his bias, if any, a quantifying study of content would be needed.

A study of this type would consider the political party of all guests who were politicians and all stories focusing on politicians. It would need to be conducted over a period of time, perhaps a month or a season of the show. Maybe Jon Stewart was a bit grouchy one day, and his sarcasm was over-the-top on that occasion. To rule out things like the influence of mood (since Jon Stewart is human and subject to human nature), the study would need to compile this information over an extended period of time, not a single day.

Even one day can help to make a somewhat informed decision in search of a political agenda for the purpose of discussion, but lacks credibility because of the variability of human condition to which Jon Stewart is subject. However, a single day of viewing lacks the content immersion required to establish a trend that lends credibility to a declarative statement that a TV host is clearly pushing an ideological agenda as a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate the viewers.

After the study is completed, it would be instructive to see quantified results. For instance, if Jon Stewart picks on Republicans like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Haley Barbour, and Michelle Bachmann day after day, month after month, but never gives a modicum of equal time to lampooning Democrats like Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, or Nancy Pelosi, can a person say that there is clearly no political agenda because Jon Stewart spent the majority of his time mocking politicians? Does he fairly distribute the mockery among prominent politicians without regard to political affiliation or ideological bent?

To echo a statement from part one of this discussion, the challenge is in judging what constitutes bias. How do a TV host and his viewers collectively establish a centrist perspective that would be completely apolitical? One person’s bias is another person’s reality.