Parody News Isn't So Bad.
So everyone complains about the future of the country--blaming Stewert and Colbert.
It's been pretty well documented that a lot of young people get their news from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. And this is then followed with "What is the world coming to?" kind of statements.
Okay, so, dismissing the party discrepancy of these shows (everyone knows they both lean heavily left)
Colbert brought up this list on his show.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/993/who-knows-news-what-you-read-or-view-matters-but-not-your-politics
It's pretty eye-opening.
It's not a huge report, it's not very comprehensive. They only asked people three political questions.
But let's leave it at this:
-More people who watch the Colbert Report know the name of the current Prime Minister of GB than those who watch the BBC.
-More people got all three questions right who primarily watch the Daily Show OR the Colbert Report than who read any kind of newspaper, online news, or watch television news (cable, local OR network).
-Also, as a personal aside, more people got all three right who get their news from ESPN than Fox News.
I say that in order to understand the jokes on these shows or to care about anything that Colbert or Stewert argue for, you have to know about politics.
Whether or not you agree with what they say is irrelevant. The fact is, the people that watch these shows are clearly not just pot-smoking hippies and beer-guzzling frat guys. And if they are, they are well-informed hippies and frat guys.
It's been pretty well documented that a lot of young people get their news from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. And this is then followed with "What is the world coming to?" kind of statements.
Okay, so, dismissing the party discrepancy of these shows (everyone knows they both lean heavily left)
Colbert brought up this list on his show.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/993/who-knows-news-what-you-read-or-view-matters-but-not-your-politics
It's pretty eye-opening.
It's not a huge report, it's not very comprehensive. They only asked people three political questions.
But let's leave it at this:
-More people who watch the Colbert Report know the name of the current Prime Minister of GB than those who watch the BBC.
-More people got all three questions right who primarily watch the Daily Show OR the Colbert Report than who read any kind of newspaper, online news, or watch television news (cable, local OR network).
-Also, as a personal aside, more people got all three right who get their news from ESPN than Fox News.
I say that in order to understand the jokes on these shows or to care about anything that Colbert or Stewert argue for, you have to know about politics.
Whether or not you agree with what they say is irrelevant. The fact is, the people that watch these shows are clearly not just pot-smoking hippies and beer-guzzling frat guys. And if they are, they are well-informed hippies and frat guys.