I remember first learning about Thomas Nast in my eighth grade U.S. History class. We were shown how his cartoons helped expose government corruption during the ‘Tweed Era’ in New York during the 19th century. My first thoughts upon seeing this man’s cartoons were “man, was boss Tweed really that fat?” Of course, the information didn’t stick so well during a time when puberty starts to take course so I kind of forgot about Nast for a while. Now that I am a bit older and more concerned with our history, I enjoyed reading about Thomas Nast again in Satire’s Brew. Who knew one man and his drawings would defeat an evil political machine like Tammany Hall?
In the chapter titled, Origins: Shadows of Forthcoming Events, we see that the main character compares Nast to Fox News. On page 108, the character states, “Nast’s meteoric rise can mirror that of Fox News” (Dunphy 108). As I’m first reading this, I can’t help but to start disagreeing and express my distrust in a news corporation such as News Corp. However, a few lines later, he mentions that both Nast and Fox News “ dealt with national tragedies 9/11, the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination, and gained support for their causes” (Dunphy 108). Once the character puts it this way, I agree with the comparison he made. Both Nast and Fox News used the public emotional response to national tragedies in order to shift support for their causes. Nast and Fox News did a very good job at dividing the country and shifting public opinion in order for people to agree with them.
The character used the term “emotional collateral” when describing Nast’s strategy on getting people to be on his side. The character states, “Emotional collateral allows for a cartoonist to affect a nation’s feelings towards a political party or politician” (109). In the case of Fox News, we see this happening all the time. This reminds me of the last assignment where we had to watch three episodes of The Daily Show with John Stewart. In one of the episodes, Stewart plays numerous clips from Fox News criticizing and putting blame on President Obama over the country’s actions handling the ISIS situation. We can see from the news clips that Fox News likes to distort or exaggerate certain information in order to shift the country’s opinion on politics. You can also say that Nast has done the same by depicting William Tweed as this overwhelmingly huge fat guy who gets away with anything he wants. However, the character mentions the difference of how Nast and Fox News used their emotional collateral. On page 122, he states “Thomas Nast utilized his emotional collateral gained during the Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination in a positive manner to destroy Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed; Fox News, and others, employed their brand of emotional collateral obtained over the span from the 2000 election to 9/11 to divide the country and lead us to war with Iraq”. I completely agree with this comparison because unlike what major media outlets do nowadays, Nast was successful at pointing out the problem in our system and made sure the public would no longer allow for any more corruption to continue.
Works Cited
Dunphy, Brian. “Origins: Shadows of Forthcoming Events.” Satire’s Brew: Mass Media & Coffee Beans. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Pub., 2014. N. pag. Print.
I was always aware about The Daily Show with Jon Stewart but, I’ll admit, I don’t think I have ever fully watched an episode until having to do so for this assignment. I remember when I used to have cable, right after watching South Park at 9:30PM. The Daily Show would begin right after the ending credits of South Park. That’s when I would go *click* and then right onto MTV or Cartoon Network to continue watching more TV. Man do I kind of regret that now… Jon Stewart is AWESOME!! I was also below the voting age so I guess I can get cut some slack.
Ok. That’s enough reminiscing about my high school teenage years. Now it’s time for the good stuff.
Before watching the three episodes, I read the first chapter in Brian Dunphy’s book, Satire’s Brew, which was about a lecture that the main character gives about satire in media and politics particularly focusing on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. At one point in the beginning of the chapter, the main character compares Jon Stewart to the role of a jester by stating, “the jester worked for the monarchy but the subtext of what he was saying was for the people, the commoners or the third estate” (Dunphy 5). The protagonist explains that although people like Jon Stewart work for huge media corporations like Viacom, they still poke fun and expose the media institutions in order to give the people an honest truth about what is going on in the world. I also find it ironic that the media was originally intended to keep check on the government but instead we see the media taking sides and playing along with many lies and scandals the government and its officials partake in. On page 18, the author states “the media, or the fourth estate, was supposed to be on the people’s side, not working in concert with the powerful”. The character later mentions that the creation of the 24 hour news networks has caused the people to lose trust due to the strategy of reporting news in a way that it manipulates the truth in order in attract a specific audience. For that, I am forever grateful for Lizz Winstead and Madeleine Smithberg for creating a show that can mock these silly networks and show the public some truth and honestly all while keeping us entertained as well.
In the first segment of the episode, Jon Stewart addresses the recent news in LGBT civil rights. Stewart starts off by reporting the bad news. He plays a news clip reporting that Governor Stan Brownback issued an executive order to remove all members of the LGBT community of protection from being fired or harassed by their employers for their sexual orientation. Of course, Stewart pokes fun at this situation by throwing a few Wizard of Oz jokes in there. The part where Stewart goes “and it being Kansas, I guess Brownback clicked his heel three times and said ‘there’s no place like homophobia’”, had me cracking up. A few jokes later, Stewart then gives some good news on recent LGBT civil rights. Another clip is played, reporting the same sex couples have started getting licenses in Alabama. However, the state had asked the federal Supreme Court if they can place a hold on issuing the marriages while the decision is being appealed. TDS thought this was absurd. I most definitely agree. I don’t think people should have any restrictions on who they can marry. Well maybe except if Jebidiah wants to marry his little sister Molly who’s 9 years old…ew ok you get the point. A few clips later, we see that couples were being denied the marriages they were supposed to have. The license offices had closed windows with a bunch of mardi gras decorations all over. Stewart with his humor pointed out the hypocrisy of the so-called “heterosexuals Christians” celebrating the beginning of Lent by partying and participating in all kinds of debauchery. But having two men get married is wrong? Yeah I agree with you Jon Stewart. Alabama still needs some reevaluation.
The next episode I watched, aired on February 10, 2015 (http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/8omwbs/february-10–2015—david-axelrod) spoke about the recent news about ISIS being attacked by Jordan in retaliation of burning a Jordanian pilot alive. TDS then shows various clips about how the conservative media was praising the king of Jordan, King Abdullah for his actions against ISIS. One journalist even compared him to Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven in which immediately Stewart sarcastically agrees and says, “Yeah! He’s like Clint Eastwood from Unforgiven! And he wore a hat from Raiders of the Lost Ark while riding a tauntaun from Star Wars!”. I always love how much the right-wing media contradicts themselves. Apparently, TDS does too. They play a couple of clips of Fox News anchors asking why the president can’t be more like a KING. Then moments later, we see the same anchors criticizing President Obama for acting like a king. Funny isn’t it? However, it didn’t seem too funny when later in the episode Jon Stewart was announcing that he is leaving TDS soon. Bummer… This was really becoming one of my favorite shows really fast.
I still had one more episode to watch. This next episode was aired on February 9, 2015 (http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/zeehf7/february-9–2015—patricia-arquette). In the first segment, TDS addresses the recent situation with NBC correspondent, Brian Williams getting caught with misinforming the public about a story covered during the Iraq War. According to his report, he was on board a helicopter when all of a sudden it was attacked by a RPG. Stewart’s immediate response was “Bri. Why? Why Bri? Why Bri lie?” You can already tell that Stewart is so happy that somebody messed up pretty bad in the media. He states later in the segment, “…I am happy. Finally, someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq War”. I can’t say that I disagree with Jon on this one. As a journalist, I believe that it is their responsibility to report the truth and be completely honest to the public. I think it is unacceptable for any lying to take place when reporting the news. Jon Stewart did a great job on this one and proves why he is a leader in the fifth estate. According to Satire’s Brew, “The fifth estate is an additional check on those in power and in corporate media” (20). Jon Steward hit the nail on the head with this one.
Now the big question is, is Jon Stewart a comedian? Jon Stewart is most definitely a comedian. Even in Satire’s Brew the main character says so. Stewart’s comedic style of using satire fit the vision Lizz Winstead and Madeleine Smithberg had while creating this awesome show. I hope Stewart’s replacement will be able to fill the shoes that he had been walking in for the past 16 years.
In the article, “Is Glenn Greenwald the Future of News?” two views on how journalism should be reported are discussed in a conversation between Bill Keller and Glenn Greenwald. When it came to picking a side, I’ll have to admit, it was pretty hard to decide whose side I was on. Both Keller and Greenwald were bringing up great points. For example, Keller using the exposing of the Watergate Scandal as one of his examples or Greenwald stating how journalists use certain words to sugarcoat aggressive actions such as torture to make the US government seem less of a bad guy.
Unfortunately, as part of the assignment, I am obligated to pick a side. And the side I choose is…(drum roll please)… Bill Keller.
Keller states “…as a news reporter and editor I defined my job not as telling readers what I think, or telling them what they ought to think, but telling them what they needed to know to decide for themselves.” (4). I agree with this statement because I believe that journalism should be written from an unbiased perspective in order to provide facts from both sides of a story, at least from a news reporting approach. In general, when I see that journalist starts adding their opinion in a news report, I almost automatically start questioning the credibility the report has or whether the journalist is just succumbing to the corporate interests of the journalistic institution he/she represents. (Yeah I’m looking at you, CNN and Fox News). I think the deal breaker for me in this debate was when Keller stated that if a journalist states his or her own opinions on a matter, “it’s human nature to want to defend them, and it becomes tempting to omit or minimize facts, or frame the argument, in ways that support your declared viewpoint” (3). We see this happening all the time in daily newspapers like The New York Post and Daily News. How many political bashing or war mongering headlines are we shown every day in order to shift our opinions on such issues?
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