What Battered Newsrooms Can Learn From Stewart's CNBC Takedown

The most talked-about journalism of this week wasn't produced in the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek or NPR. It was Jon Stewart's epic, eight-minute takedown on Wednesday night's Daily Show of CNBC's clueless, in-the-tank reporting of inflatable bubbles and blowhard CEOs as the U.S. and world economies slowly slid into a meltdown. You can quibble about Stewart's motives in undertaking the piece -- after he was spurned for an interview by CNBC's faux populist ranter Rick Santelli -- but you can't argue with the results.

The piece wasn't just the laugh-out-loud funniest thing on TV all week (and this was a week in which NBC rebroadcast the SNL "more cowbell" sketch, so that's saying a lot) but it was exquisitely reported, insightful, and it tapped into America's real anger about the financial crisis in a way that mainstream journalism has found so elusive all these months, in a time when we all need to be tearing down myths. As one commenter on the Romenesko blog noted, "it's simply pathetic that one has to watch a comedy show to see things like this."

But that's not all. The Stewart piece also got the kind of eyeballs that most newsrooms would kill for in this digital age -- planted atop many, many major political, media and business Web sites -- and the kind of water-cooler chatter that journalists would crave in any age. In a time when newspapers are flat-out dying if not dealing with bankruptcy or massive job losses, while other types of news orgs aren't faring much better, the journalistic success of a comedy show rant shouldn't be viewed as a stick in the eye -- but a teachable moment. Why be a curmudgeon about kids today getting all their news from a comedy show, when it's not really that hard to join Stewart in his own idol-smashing game?

Here's how:

1) Great research trumps good access to the powerful: The Stewart piece makes this controversial but critical point in two different ways. For one thing, the story shows how access to the nation's most powerful CEOs -- supposedly the big advantage of a journalistic enterprise like CNBC -- isn't worth a warm bucket of spit when it results in slo-pitch softball questions, for fear of offending the rich and powerful. And so we see Ford's CEO grilled about Kid Rock's performance at the auto show, Ponzi scammer (later revealed) Alan Stanford quizzed on whether it's fun to be a billionaire, and Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo gushing at how corporate chiefs were still telling her that their companies were doing great, even as the massive iceberg was casting its shadow over the hull of the American economy.

Jon Stewart's act of journalism -- reported, of course, by his ace team of writers -- worked because there were no interviews at all. It all hung instead on meticulous research, dredging up lethal quips of CNBC's stock pumping hosts to hang them with their own undeniable words -- Jim Cramer's "buy buy buy" when the Dow was roughly double what it is today, his touting of Bear Stearns' and Bank of America's doomed stocks. The kind of research that's so hard for most newspapers to do anymore, with downsized staffs and ever-looming deadlines, but which can so often belies the spin from our "accessible" sources.

2) The American public is mad as hell right now, so why isn't the mainstream media? Balanced reporting is important, but a balanced, modulated tone of voice? Not now, not when millions are hurting from lost jobs and under-water mortgages, and many millions more are living in fear of the same fate. People need information but what they so desperately want an outlet that shares their passion -- and, yes, that rage -- and so Jon Stewart gave people what they weren't getting anywhere else.

3) Tear down this wall... of pretending that the media itself isn't a major player in American society, and isn't a factor in most big stories. Sure, there were greedy bankers and their pocketed politicians working in unintended tandem to take the Dow from 14,000 down to 6,600, but these popular TV pundits were there every step of the way, as The Daily Show revealed, and their contribution was consequential. Mainstream media, after all these years, has a hard time understanding that one of the major political forces in this country is mainstream media, something the audience knows all too well.

4) The First Amendment doesn't say anything about not being funny, or not being passionate. I don't know about you, if you actually watched the piece, but I feel like I learned something important -- confirming the cheerleading nature of the nation's most-watched source for business news, even in a moment of oncoming disaster -- but I also busted my gut laughing as I did. And there's nothing wrong with that, informing and entertaining at the same time -- isn't that what newspapers are charging people 75 cents for?.

You know, sometimes people do some crazy stuff when they realize their days are numbered. I don't have the answers to problems facing American journalism -- not my own newsroom, mired in Chapter 11, nor the others that face a possible death sentence. But fighting for life will mean living each day like it was your last, with passion, anger and laughter, the way The Daily Show shined a light on a crevice of the nation's battered economy on Wednesday night.

Here's the video:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Comments

[KarenM]

Hey! For those commenting on the comparisons... if they're going to compare Stewart to anyone, they could start with Will Bunch himself... one of the few honest voices left on the M$M pages who is not afraid to call 'em like he sees 'em.

I do hope, Mr. Bunch, that you can find a good spot for yourself during this transformation of the media. Otherwise, your voice would be sorely missed.

[Spinsterina]

I can't believe no one's comparing Stewart to the great pros: David Gregory, Bob Schieffer or George Stephanopolos -- aren't they the masters of this type of confrontational journalism?

Heh. Just kidding. But seriously, it is weird that no one even mentions them. So boring they don't even register in all this discussion of speaking truth to power.

[Gdebs]

Great point. MSNBC could do worse than to put Jon and Steven on a "REAL" news show together.

[ciervo]

By placing REAL in quotes, you indicate that you get it. The Daily Show (and The Colbert Report) are the real news and have been for several years. My husband and I are in our sixties and we get it; so do our relatives in their seventies and eighties. We resent the fact that Stewart and Colbert are usually put down as the news source of twenty somethings, as though they wouldn't appeal to serious people who are looking for more than a laugh. The laughs are a bonus, not the raison d'etre. On the other hand, Mr. Bunch still doesn't quite get it. To say Stewart was spurned by Santelli is ridiculous. Santelli simply knew he was no match for Jon in intelligence, cogent reasoning, or honor. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing Jon interview Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Musharaf, Evo Morales, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and many other world leaders and thinkers. They know who is reporting the real news.

[oldgrendel]

In Stewart we trust! Long live the King!!!

[Jezreel]

Exellent article, Will. Your points are salient and well stated. I wholeheartedly agree. Americans want, no, Americans need real journalism. The kind of journalism that let's us know that reporters are serious about presenting the facts and they are not just out to sell us a Bill of Goods or influence our opinions so as to push their own political agendas.

[wanttruth]

Awesome video. Thanks, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show staff!

[Samalabear]

I hope everyone knows by now that this eight-minute takedown of CNBC was already in a can as a prelude to the appearance of Santelli. It obviously gained greater meaning and notoriety because Santelli was a no-show. Stewart explained this.

[swkidder]

What Jon Stewart does is to somehow present - in all its ugliness - the raw political truth(s) of the moment. And somehow, as he does so, he and incredibly talented staff take the poison off of those ugly truths with humor. The tone of what he does is pitch perfect righteous anger. It's not the kind of blind hate directed at fallible human beings that you hear from the "Right," but rather a call to correct that particular piece of insanity which he is shoving in your face.
He got me through some really dark days over the last 8 years, and I owe him a debt of gratitude that can only be paid with citizenship pursed in the same generous spirit in which he works. Watching him, you laugh and you learn. And you come away determined to "do something about that," but without being left in the kind of blind rage that leads to paralysis and hate - and that actually gets in the way of any productive activism.
He's a National Treasure ... may he Live Long and Prosper.

[kindageeky]

This reminds me of Colbert at the National Press Club a few years ago. These guys are very good...they can be smart and scathing because, hey, it's just comedy! It's a very sophisticated comedy that is devastating and harmless all at once. Just brilliant.

[jozinha]

Just when I thought we might not need Stewart so much anymore... zing!

Boy, do we need him!

[premdeep]

Thank you Jon, that was one of the most liberating and gratifying "f#@% you"s ever uttered. Millions of us feel like we have a bit more of a voice, thanks to you. Maybe someday the profit hungry news media will understand it's possible to actually do some real research and still make a profit.

[dav ram58]

Thanks Jon for shining the light on the endless flow hypocrisy.

[alkamm]

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

The corporate controlled media is deeply embedded in advancing corporate agendas. When Fox won the Prosilac whistleblower case against the reporters who tried to inform the public of cancer causing agents in their milk after systematic corporate repression, a little part of journalism was drowned in the bathtub where Grover Norvald has expressed interest in killing government.

Government should support journalism, mainstream and otherwise, because reporters find the stories that can correct our mistakes, sometimes before they happen, sometimes during or after.

The Bush years were death to open information, but even before Bush, the media were more cheerleaders than fearless mockers and scorners of the idiots who manage to gain power. All organizations suffer when no one challenges them and they do not have the shame to apologize for their egregious, and all to often ongoing mistakes.

[jefflorida]

grover norquist

[s miller08]

The Daily Show succeeds because they don't feel pressure to cram a bunch of news into a half hour. And even though they are ultra-critical of leadership, leadership needs The Daily Show to reach "the kids."
Stewart and Colbert are in a great position.

[lolcopter]

LOL

so awesome. as already mentioned multiple times, it's sad that comedy central provides the best news