Is It Time To Watch For A "Daily Show Document Dump?"

It's not for nothing that many Americans cite Comedy Central's The Daily Show as the "most trusted name in news." Jon Stewart and his crackerjack staff of writers and researchers have evolved into regular and reliable wielders of analytical skewers, deftly eviscerating the tidy talking points of politicians and the tiresome conventional wisdom of the media.

Now, The Daily Show is on hiatus, for three long weeks.

Around the office, I often joke that the most dangerous time in America is when the show is taking a break. Again, this is meant as a joke! And so, despite the fact that after a summer of delays, the much anticipated torture documents were finally released on the first Monday of the show's hiatus, I think it would be unwise to suggest anything nefarious behind the timing. Right? I mean, to suggest that the torture documents were released to avoid the commentary of one of the media's few, reliable, anti-torture voices...this would be pure paranoia!

Why, to believe that, there would have to be some sort of extant example of a government spokesperson or agency citing The Daily Show as a reason to keep from disclosing information:

The Associated Press, June 18, 2009:

A federal judge said Thursday that he wants to look at notes from the FBI's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney's interview from the public.

Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.

"If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate," Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith said during a 90-minute hearing. "I don't want a future vice president to say, 'I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for 'The Daily Show.'"

Hmmmm. People speak of the "Colbert bump." Should we start monitoring for a "Daily Show document dump?"

UPDATE: Huffington Post Comedy editor Alex Leo reminds me: "Sarah Palin resigned the first day of his last hiatus." COINCIDENCE?

PREVIOUSLY, on THE HUFFINGTON POST:
DOJ: We Can't Release Cheney Records Because Of Late Night Comedy

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[jeliz]

04:44 PM on 08/27/2009

Jon Stewart and the Daily Show researcher­s: Bet you didn't realize you were that powerful! Wonderful article. But since when did Dick Cheney ever cooperate with any investigat­ion? Republican­s are weenies. My God, they talked incessantl­y about Bill Clinton saying, "I did not have sex with that woman," but no one died. Dick Cheney's actions possibly put operatives at risk in other countries, and the treasonous outing of one of our own agents is unforgivab­le for an American with the position of Vice President. If a Democrat did the same, Republican­ts would be screaming bloody murder.

I like Sponge Bob Square Pants by the way. GW should have been half as intelligen­t as Sponge Bob, we wouldn't be in the shape we're in now.

[reallyseriouslyagain2]

03:54 PM on 08/28/2009

OK I thought this was addressed.
Jon Stewart = Comedy Central, Colbert, a spoof of O’Reilly on Comedy Central.
Olbermann, didn’t he strikeout with ESPN. How do you go from getting bumped from a sports show to a lead on news network? Maybe he is taking lessons from Rush.
Maddow, ok, Olbermann’­s sister! Really if it wasn’t for there name could you tell them apart.
Maher, didn’t he just join the Gotti’s. Something to do with “head’s in beds”! Honestly, I think he is getting jealously of his receding hair line, or it could be something with the size of his head?
Matthews, well he saw what happened to Abrams and said ok to Olbermann?­? Weird.
AC360 is still looking for the mole!!! I heard he had a great lead, something to do with Abrams and Olbermann?­?

Alright in a nutshell, Comedy Central, MSNBC sister station to Comedy Central, and game show hosts as news anchors. I am still looking for my Mad Magazine.

The only name not mentioned is Carlos Mencia. No, too politicall­y incorrect!

Wait!!, I get it, the head in the bead comes from the “Mind of Mencia”, now AC-360 has his mole.

[GO-BAMA]

01:52 PM on 08/27/2009

This "article" = FAIL

[Cheshiremoe]

01:22 PM on 08/27/2009

I am already going into with drawl...

[dmitrir]

01:21 PM on 08/27/2009

When Jon Stewart's wife had their first child, Stephen Colbert -- before he had his own show -- substitute­d as host for the evening. Why can't they have guest-host­s while Jon and Stephen are on vacation? I'd certainly watch The Daily Show with Larry Wilmore and The John Hodgman Report for a couple of weeks.

[Cheshiremoe]

01:25 PM on 08/27/2009

I bet they could get Lewis Black to host once in a while.

[KillgoreTrout43]

05:51 PM on 08/27/2009

That would be a blast. Black is hilarious.

[GO-BAMA]

01:52 PM on 08/27/2009

Because the writing staff and most of the crew breaks as well.

[Bocababs]

01:00 PM on 08/27/2009

One of the days I watched Jon Stewart comes back to me now....it was on May 20th, when I was awaiting the arrival of a new arrival (baby boy) -- I was in the hosptial waiting area watching the previous night's opening Daily Show and Stewart was arguing about Healthcare and government run entities, and I still talk about what he said months later....t­hat our Military is government run, and he asked the guest.....­."How's that working out for you"? I love Jon Stewart because he knows how to unravel a "right wing" talking point with something as simple as that statment.

[b1rd67]

12:19 PM on 08/27/2009

"If we become a fact-finde­r for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate,­"

This is just an EXCUSE not to cooperate.­.. the real reason they wont' cooperate is the same reason every other criminal refuses to cooperate.­.. because THEY DID SOMETHING WRONG AND DON'T WANT TO GET CAUGHT! The difference is, your average run-of-the­-mill criminal doesn't run the Justice Department­!

[toxicbrainpoison]

10:18 AM on 08/27/2009

That is sad that the Daily Show is the only program we can count on to accurately talk about this stuff. And with Ted Kennedy passing away and Rachel Maddow being sick we wont see anything on tv.

[LemonMeringue]

10:01 AM on 08/27/2009

I want Jon to tell the names of all the people who have been invited on his show but have declined.

[ElectricFuture]

11:31 AM on 08/27/2009

Most conservati­ves run away from Daily Show invites like cockroache­s run away from the light.

[gabberwok]

03:14 PM on 08/27/2009

Actually not true. They're more likely to show up on the Daily Show than Olbermann or Maddow. Jon Stewart has a reputation with conservati­ves of being liberal, but fair. He'll destroy the occasional person (Kramer, McCaughey, Tucker Carlson, etc...), but it's less about politics and more about hypocrisy (one of the harshest interviews I've seen him do was with Chris Matthews).

[KillgoreTrout43]

05:52 PM on 08/27/2009

Why?

[Enrique Lopez]

09:53 AM on 08/27/2009

Yeah, he ripped apart that "death panel" lady the other day. Completely refuted the hyperbole that she was trying to use by reading the text back to her after she spouted off nonesense that was unrelated to the text she was "using" as a source.

[GenXer]

10:32 AM on 08/27/2009

She actually had to resign from a medical equipment board that she was on the next day.

Jon is just keeping them honest. (Well kind of).

[Bushwillresign]

10:52 AM on 08/27/2009

She couldn't find the page she was refering to with her death panel ideas. Jon said' why don't you use a sticky note or something"­?

[b1rd67]

12:14 PM on 08/27/2009

Because they haven't invented sticky notes that will stick to imaginary pages yet!

[radiojunkie]

02:30 PM on 08/27/2009

that would be too efficient

[grooveygrover]

09:37 AM on 08/27/2009

I thought the President and Vice President were beholden to the same law the rest of us are. They HAVE to cooperate, period, if they don't they should be charged with contempt at the very least.

[Corners]

10:53 AM on 08/27/2009

Exactly. They know this,and i have no doubt the majority of them wouldn't tell you the truth anyways unless you had it on video.Even then they would still try to weasel out of it

[humanity60]

09:37 AM on 08/27/2009

I am perplexed why Jon is doing a better job than our profession­al journalist­.

[gawkhawk]

10:50 AM on 08/27/2009

Because the journalist­s work for corporatio­ns! Most corporatio­ns keep a lock on the message from their employees. MSNBC is a liberal-le­ft slant...Fa­ux News has a pure Neo-Conser­vative slant...CN­N is lost but still know which lines not to cross. Comedy Central is uniquely Switzerlan­d-like, but with legitimacy to speak the truth in their own special way. Just like Political Cartoons used to say more than journalist­s could in 1000 words...Co­medy Central is able to breakthrou­gh the political cesspool and deliver the truth. Rachel Maddow is the only other journalist I trust along with the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

[Dbos]

02:31 PM on 08/28/2009

Great post . True so so sad.

[jemborg]

05:39 PM on 08/27/2009

What the heck is wrong with Newshour with Jim Lehrer? I watch that... and I'm in Australia!

[progressivegreg]

09:30 AM on 08/27/2009

Colbert and Steward our modern day Will Rogers! Speaking truth to power.

[Mark Morrow]

09:14 AM on 08/27/2009

Maybe the Justice department and the Court should consider the deterrent effect on bad behavior by future Presidents and Vice-Presi­dents of *knowing* that their crimes will be revealed on the Daily Show. Cheney could be a useful object lesson for those who follow him.

[dclintn648]

08:27 AM on 08/27/2009

The Daily Show has done more actual hard reporting on news than Fox - only it's MEANT to be funny! Fox doesn't even know what a kick we get out of their "hard" news!

[lindamas]

08:55 AM on 08/27/2009

More news than FOX? They cover more news than all three cable stations together. Not to mention, his interviews actually contain questions that the news channels are afraid to ask.

[Itsmyland2]

10:39 AM on 08/27/2009

FOX does not cover news. They cover propaganda for the Republican party

[YewNeekId]

08:03 AM on 08/27/2009

It's time to dump the daily show. It has featured the same boring, trite material for years. Comedy Central needs a few new acts.

The people who rely on the daily show for their news can get similar quality info by watching sponge bob square pants.

[rayy]

08:17 AM on 08/27/2009

Couldn't disagree more! Although I don't watch it regularly, or rely on it for news, I think it is both necessary and hilarious. Stewart has done a great job skewering some of the hypocrites­, liars and thieves in public office.

[MaggieNYS]

08:55 AM on 08/27/2009

Not to mention that young people, even before voting age, become interested in politics by watching people like Stewart and Colbert...­.they get honest news and a few good laughs!

[vinainor]

08:18 AM on 08/27/2009

Reality-ba­sed Americans would disagree with you. Are you a republican­? = Are you living in a fact free zone?