[Marxism] A good reason to watch Jon Stewart

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Washington Post, Friday, June 23, 2006; A02
Jon Stewart, Enemy of Democracy?
By Richard Morin

This is not funny: Jon Stewart and his hit Comedy Central cable show may be
poisoning democracy.

Two political scientists found that young people who watch Stewart's faux
news program, "The Daily Show," develop cynical views about politics and
politicians that could lead them to just say no to voting.

That's particularly dismaying news because the show is hugely popular among
college students, many of whom already don't bother to cast ballots.

Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris of East Carolina University said
previous research found that nearly half -- 48 percent -- of this age group
watched "The Daily Show" and only 23 percent of show viewers followed "hard
news" programs closely.

To test for a "Daily Effect," Baumgartner and Morris showed video clips of
coverage of the 2004 presidential candidates to one group of college
students and campaign coverage from "The CBS Evening News" to another
group. Then they measured the students' attitudes toward politics,
President Bush and the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry
(Mass.).

The results showed that the participants rated both candidates more
negatively after watching Stewart's program. Participants also expressed
less trust in the electoral system and more cynical views of the news
media, according to the researchers' article, in the latest issue of
American Politics Research.

"Ultimately, negative perceptions of candidates could have participation
implications by keeping more youth from the polls," they wrote.


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