Jon Stewart v. Ted Koppel

[JiriHrdina]

I did not see this myself but I have read some articles about this interesting interview/argument that went down between Ted Koppel and Jon Stewart. They get rather heated with each other and at the heart seems to be Koppel's unhappiness with Americans getting their news from a comedy show like The Daily Show.

Link

More complete transcript

I think Stewart is being a little naive if he doesn't realize that some people do in fact get their news from his show. Myself included - although I watch it first and foremost for the humor (which is the best on TV) but I fully admit that its one of the only ways I keep up to date with American politics. Is that wrong?

Anyhoo its an interesting debate between these two heavyweights.

[Cowperson]

Koppel's view - "I'll present both sides of the story, give the viewer information in a form the common man can understand, and let him decide which point of view he supports.

Stewart's view - "I'll dress the interview down to the level of the common man and tell him what I think, hoping to persuade him to my viewpoint."

One is a reporter. The other is a columnist.

Historically, in newspapers at least, there's always been room for both so I'm not sure what Koppel is in a knot about. Newspaper columnists appear in their local rags every day doing much the same thing.

Is Koppel put out that its a newer phenomenon for TV?

Cowperson

[JiriHrdina]

Exactly Cow. What exactly does Ted have his knickers tied up about? Its not like Stewart goes around proclaiming to be a legitimate journalist. He himself refers to it as "the fake news" on almost every show.

Ted is not giving Americans very much credit in terms of their ability to seperate real news from programs like The Daily Show.

[MrMastodonFarm]

I remembering seeing this interview several weeks back now and it was interesting.. but it certainly wasn't the heated debate Dana Stevens is making it out to be. Koppel seemed to disagree with Stewart but neither got that angry, atleast it didn't seem that way to me.

It was a good discussion back and forth, not heated in any way. Koppel seemed to have a genuine respect for what Stewart does. The whole "No, not from you. I've had enough of you. " part that Koppel said at the end was done with a smile, it was a joke.

[metallicat]

If anyone actually takes the "news" from the Daily Show and thinks it is all truth, they need to give their head a shake. I personally love the Daily Show. I think Jon Stewart is hilarious, and the other people that are on his show like Lewis Black and Cordrury are equally hilarious. I don't really care who Jon sides with, because no matter who he is making fun of, it's hilarious.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally posted by oilers_fan@Aug 14 2004, 10:10 PM
If anyone actually takes the "news" from the Daily Show and thinks it is all truth, they need to give their head a shake.

Well I for one do get a decent dose of "news" from the Daily show, probably because it is easy to tell when they are saying what is news and what is a joke.. its as clear as day. Of course I usually already know about the news parts before I watch that show.

Like if I want to see what stupid things Bob Novak is writing in his article's I can watch the Daily show to see what Jon and his crew will point out, better then actually reading the poppycock that Novak writes myself. :P

[Wolfwood]

Originally posted by oilers_fan@Aug 15 2004, 12:10 AM
If anyone actually takes the "news" from the Daily Show and thinks it is all truth, they need to give their head a shake.

Now I'll agree with this. But I also think that you could argue that about probably every news show out there. Especially when dealing with politics. I know that they are supposed to deliver the facts but sometimes that just doesn't happen entirely. We never know what is left out or changed in some ways. Also people personal opinions can leak through. Of course this is especially true of the daily show since it is meant to be comedy about the news. If people think it's all the truth there is some problem with that.