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.

  • Ghostalmedia
    link
    fedilink
    English
    465 months ago

    Jessica Williams‘ rebuttal was kind of legit though. Everything else in the news is miserable, and this case is pretty funny. Involves an orange jackass, a porn star, and opening testimony from a dude named pecker. Maybe is ok to have some trash reality TV at Trump’s expense.

      • Ghostalmedia
        link
        fedilink
        English
        85 months ago

        Even when I’m consuming my straitlaced NPR, I do enjoy a little Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me making fun of this case. Tragedy straight is pretty crushing. I need some comedy to sprinkled in so I don’t give up in complete despair.

        • @Mongostein@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          25 months ago

          Sure, and you can get that from shows like The Daily Show on The Comedy Network.

          The news is supposed to be informative.

          • Ghostalmedia
            link
            fedilink
            English
            15 months ago

            The news has had stuff like this in it since the dawn of the printing press.

            IMHO, the problem isn’t infotainment, it the quantity of infotainment.

      • @lennybird@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        05 months ago

        Eh it’s 24/7 news.

        Jon nailed it that covering this stuff isn’t necessarily an issue unless something more important comes up.

        And sure we could say these news outlets could cover a range of topics if not just teach civics when nothing is happening… But they’re viewer/profit driven.

          • @lennybird@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            05 months ago

            Absolutely. I didn’t mean to sound like I’m excusing it as Jon also noted the problem is how everything is a crisis and breaking news and it just exhausts what actually is urgent.