(Thumbnail Image from The New York Times)
"Brian Williams: Our newsroom has people working in it.
Jon Stewart: And when those people are done finding out where Michael Jacksons brain is what do they work on then? ... Walter Cronkite was a giant in the industry. Was that a man you looked up to?
Brian Williams: The man I wanted to be when I was a kid. ... It was like carrot top to you.
Jon Stewart: How does it feel to fall so short?” (Video footage from POLITICO)
“A new poll by TIME magazine says Jon Stewart is the most trusted newscaster in America except he’s not really a newscaster people…The Daily Show host took 44% of the almost 10,000 votes cast online, which is by the way not that scientific. He got more votes than Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson combined.” (MSNBC)
Maybe it was an unscientific poll, but the idea is intriguing. We’re analyzing different perspectives on this issue and whether Stewart deserves the lofty title. First, we begin with the New York Times who already asked this exact question in August 2008.
“A sane voice in a noisy red-blue echo chamber, Mr. Stewart displays an impatience with the platitudes of both the right and the left and a disdain for commentators who, as he made clear in a famous 2004 appearance on CNN’s “Crossfire,” parrot party-line talking points and engage in knee-jerk shouting matches.’”
Taking commentators to task has been Stewart and the Daily Show’s MO, endearing him to those who believe the mainstream news media is biased and unreliable.
A video clip from Wednesday’s The Daily Show features a clip from CNN’s Lou Dobbs Show days after host Kitty Pilgrim referenced numerous pieces of evidence proving President Obama’s status as a citizen, disproving the birth certificate conspiracy theory.
“Jon Stewart: That was CNN’s Kitty Pilgrim on a thorough debunking of this on July 17. So…” July 20
Lou Dobbs: There’s a lot of questions remaining and seemingly they won’t go away because they haven’t been dealt with.
Jon Stewart: Do you even watch CNN? It’s your own F****N network! And that was Kitty Pilgrim filling in for you on your show! She debunked that theory filling in for you on your show Lou!” (Comedy Central)
His delivery might not be reminiscent of Cronkite but Jason Linkins, a blogger from the Huffington Post, says maybe that’s what gave him the edge.
“If we're being honest, he probably managed to prevail as the winner precisely because he was the odd man out in a field of network news anchors.”
However, in response to Cronkite’s death, a fan of Stewart and blogger for beliefnet.com presented an interesting perspective on the role Jon Stewart plays, and ultimately we all must play, in today’s media saturated world.
“With the rise of the professional pundit class and news channels like Fox or MSNBC that blend bias and agenda…It's important to realize each of us has the responsibility to be our own personal Cronkite.”
So does Jon Stewart deserve the title of most trusted man in America? And if he is, does that mean he represents what a news anchor should be in this day and age?
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