'Times' Shock: Everyone Still Getting Their News From The Daily Show
Did you read Sunday's Times piece about how people are getting their news from Jon Stewart these days? Because I sure as heck didn't! I don't need the Times to tell me to stop reading the Times and turn on my cable box — mainly because I was pretty sure I had read that same exact story in the Times before. But this morning, as the story was still carrying the top of the "Most Emailed List," I decided to go find that old Times story I remembered. Well, it wasn't easy. There are 102 stories listed in "Past coverage" of Jon Stewart (the original Michael Phelps!), about nine of which employ the phrase "get their news from." And yet I could not for the life of me find the one I remembered actually reading. Turns out it is because, like the former "young people" who started this whole "getting news from the Daily Show" trend, I am now very very very old…Because they've been doing this story since September 2000.
Alexis Boehmler is a junior studying English at Davidson College. At 20, she is bright and well versed, with strong views on the abortion issue and other political matters. Occasionally, friends tease her about her passion for literature; she recalls with some embarrassment speaking in class once about Don DeLillo's novel "White Noise" and being moved nearly to tears. Her opinions do not betray a hint of apathy or intellectual lethargy, and she has every intention of voting in November. And her primary news source — often, her only news source — is "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," a parody.
Just to make sure the story still holds up, we put a call into Alexis, who now works at BOMB Magazine. Turns out she still gets her news from the Daily Show. "Maybe because he covers a variety of topics and personalities, as opposed to the same thing over and over," she said. Is Jon Stewart The Most Trusted Man In America? [NYT] Much, much earlier: The Stiff Guy Vs. The Dumb Guy [NYT] Related: Colbert, Stewart Viewers More Well-Informed Than Those Watching O'Reilly, Dobbs [ThinkProgress] Which also isn't exactly news: Daily Show Viewers Smarter Than O'Reilly Viewers [BoingBoing, 2004]