'The Daily Show's' Advantage Over the MSM: An Eye for the Absurd

The Atlantic points out 'The Daily Show's' Advantage Over the MSM: An Eye for the Absurd.

"While The Daily Show  thrives on highlighting absurdity, the American press is largely incapable of calling it out. To recognize and treat something as absurd is to render a judgment, to depart from what Jay Rosen calls 'The View from Nowhere,' and that traditionalists call 'objective journalism.'"

The episode that spawned this was an unusual one. Instead of having a guest, they did a two part story about the US decision to defund UNESCO. This happened in October. UNESCO is a good organization that helps the poor around the world get clean water, educate children, help abused women, and is building a tsunami warning system. Seriously it's not controversial. But UNESCO recognized Palestine as a nation and the US has a law that it can't fund any organization that does so. Even those that support the decision believe that all parties, including the US are hurt by it.

"Transport a Politico reporter back to just before WWI and they'd cover the European system of alliances as insider realists, explaining to readers why each relationship made perfect sense. A Daily Show writer brought back to the same era would take a long look at geopolitics, study the insider dealings, and then irreverently ask, "So if these two little countries have a skirmish over an assassination you've all committed yourselves to a continent wide war? One that most of you would like to avoid and that has little prospect of making any of you better off? You're okay sending millions to their death if, say, a duke gets assassinated?" "

"In the aftermath of The Daily Show's UNESCO piece, its angle and value added has been praised in numerous journalistic outlets. Going forward, the press should try to recognize absurdity ahead of the satirists, and bring to ensuing coverage the rigor that is the journalistic comparative advantage."