Michael Braun's Blog

How much more conservative will the Daily Show turn? Once a bastion of liberal reporting, full of humor directed at the right. Not anymore. Whether under the leadership of John Stewart, notable for his love of John McCain (until McCain went and smoke at Bob Jones University). He’s one of these guys who seems liberal until you start to see those subjects that he chooses to make fun of.

A while back, they had a segment on a guy who was fighting to stop a town from playing Christian songs from their bell tower. The report they aired made fun of this individual, mocking his desire to free his life from religion. For a show that specializes in being able to express viewpoints not shown by the mainstream media, they flopped, showing a segment that might as well have been on Fox News.

And now, just recently, a segment that prompted me to write this post, a story on the segment of the African-American community who has been singled out for their mistrust of the police. Oftentimes, this mistrust turns more severe; you will hear this expressed as an “anti-snitching” mantra, an active desire to subvert police investigations by not airing knowledge of a crime. This view was most recently brought to light by the Hip-Hop artist Cam’ron on the television program 60 Minutes.

Leading the discussion with John was recent addition to the show, Larry Wilmore, pegged the “Senior Black Correspondent.” But rather than turn the conversation into humor about the racist forces that drive said communities towards a mistrust of the police, the conversation ended up being a mockery of the way that Cam’ron talks. I’m sorry, but Ebonics (or more recently known as African-American English) is a completely viable form of communication, and should not be a source of humor. If Cam’ron happens to make his “th” sound more like an “f”, this is not humor. So, when he says “ethics” and someone happens to hear that as “effics”, I don’t see why I should laugh when they point this out.

What it ends up being is subtle racism. It implies that there is no more important issue in believing helping the police is a betrayal to a community. Instead, Cam’ron is singled out as some sort of bizarre person, who not only is actively hurting America, but also misleading America’s youth (as shown by a young Black boy expressing his view of what it means to be real on the street, expressing a lot of factors actively supported by Hip-Hop music). When you think about it more, it goes from being subtle racism, to all out hate.

Further evidence that the show is taking more of a conservative slant. A feature on Hilary Clinton appearing on an entertainment show. She appears in the clips they show discussing things like clothes, shoes, and diets. What do you know? She is interested in other things that women are interested in. The worst part is that they mocked her for appearing on a show that also reported news about Brittany Spears. Well, fuck you, Daily Show, because the same criticisms have been levied against you. Recall the Crossfire debate, John Stewart?

Even more evidence, they’re now stealing jokes from Stephen Colbert, who is 100% more liberal and smart than John Stewart has ever been. The joke: the problem with the timetables the Democrats are trying to set for the Iraq war is that they are called timetables; they should be called freedom tables (et cetera, et cetera). C’mon, John Stewart – you suck! Can’t you get writers to do anything original anymore?

Anyway, it’s so unfortunately that the Daily Show is on before the Colbert Report. Bad because I often end up watching it if I plan to watch the Colbert Report. Bad because the Colbert Report always outshines the Daily Show. And bad because we all have to be exposed to the increasingly conservative commentary of John Stewart and crew.