Entries Tagged 'Jon Stewart' ↓

Yet again, thanks to Jon Stewart pointing out how retarded CNN is, we are blessed with watching clips of those retards do what they do best: lie their asses off. Who actually believes what the hell they “report” anymore, anyway? Unfortunately, the only time I’ve actually watched CNN in the last five years has been when I’m stuck in an airport terminal and the batteries on all THREE of my electronic, music-playing devices have died.

So, to recap: CNN has used video from Budapest in a report about Belgrade (for those of you not to quick with the world geography, those cities are in two different countries), faked transcripts to try and cover up an interview with a drunken fire official in Florida (it just explains so much, doesn’t it?) and now they are just admitting outright that they are using “unverifiable material” in their reporting. As Stewart said, “Why don’t you just send me the sticker and I’ll put it on my f*cking television.” Priceless!

For months now, if not years, I have been reading newspaper articles online and found myself having to Google a company, phrase or website I’m interested in learning more about. Why is this? Why on earth are newspapers and other mainstream news organizations so repelled by the idea of adding links to their stories. There are of course exceptions, but it seems the de facto policy is to simply quote a source or mention something of interest and leave it at that… Reading the Nieman Journalism Lab’s blog today gave me great hope. First, I’m not the only one going crazy and second, perhaps by talking about this subject more, we can change this habit that has become so ingrained in the MSM.

Tim Windsor wrote today,

“It’s a great story. A magician posts videos of him shipping himself to Vegas from upstate New York via UPS. The Feds investigate. Turns out it’s a hoax and a publicity stunt. Hilarity ensues.

So far, so good. But you’re reading this online. What’s your first thought?

Right: Where’s the video?

You won’t find it in the AP retelling on the Newsday.com site.

You won’t find a link to the YouTube preview, or the special microsite set up to detail the fake journey.

You won’t find the links in the original story, in which the Syracuse Post-Standard is punked by the magician. (You will find the non-linked name of the web site, a sure sign that this is an automated port of a newspaper story)

And you won’t find them in the follow-up story on the Post-Standard either.”

Windsor continues to make his point crystal clear by giving more examples, but two very important points are: 1) News organizations who don’t link, are providing a disservice to their readers and 2) It just doesn’t make sense from an SEO perspective not to link. Want to know what’s even worse? Organizations who try and promote their blogs every chance they get (Editor & Publisher springs to mind) and yet they don’t link to any one else’s blogs or even mainstream media sites when they should.

An example of E&P’s misguided policy can be seen today,

“NEW YORK Jon Stewart hammered Jim Cramer and his network, CNBC, in their anticipated face-off on “The Daily Show,” repeatedly chastising the “Mad Money” host for putting entertainment above journalism.

To see full video, go to E&P blog, at:

http://www.eandppub.com/”

That’s right, E&P actually uses their feeds and main site to try and promote their own blog, but don’t even provide a hyperlink to that blog. Instead, they copy and paste a dead link into the middle of the article. This isn’t new, but I’m not sure someone with a brain has actually thought through what the E&P policy should be. Is this bad policy or just plain stupidity? For more, go read Windsor’s peice and then, if you’d like to keep up on the Stewart v. Cramer fight, I’ve included the actual video below… novel idea, I know.

The points that Stewart makes throughout this interview are unbelievably great and the best and most honest report of the market crash I have yet to see on TV.

EDIT: I have decided to replace the edited interview with the unedited version for both technical and editorial reasons.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Maria Bartiromo and Jon Stewart were friends, I thought. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to 2001 when Bartiromo was promoting her book, “Use the News” on The Daily Show.

Well, when Bartiromo’s CNBC colleague Rick Santelli backed out on his scheduled appearance on The Daily Show, Stewart didn’t hesitate to include Bartiromo in his scathing commentary on the network’s complete failure. I stopped watching CNBC with any seriousness years ago when I figured out they were just a bunch of puppets of industry, but unfortunately a lot of “those losers” who lost their homes, have also been depending on CNBC for their financial advice. Jon Stewart – Take it away:

Scott Horton, who writes for Harper’s Magazine, has a wonderfully succinct piece about FOX “News’” supposed balance. FOX has admitted in the past to being the PR wing of the Republican party, so why do they keep pretending to present a fair and balanced report? My guess is that it works, that’s why. I personally have friends who watch FOX and quote it verbatim, lies and all, as if it is fact. The Horton write-up is well worth the read, but my favorite part was how he pointed to this brilliant clip from The Daily Show. Jon Stewart and his team barely have to try when it comes to finding comedic material on FOX. This is just too good to be true:

Last night, Walter Isaacson continued his campaign to charge for the news by appearing on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Again, Isaacson used some really bad examples (the iTunes comparison) to defend the use of micro-payments for newspaper content. However, he did bring up one good point and that is how will foreign correspondents be paid if the news is always free? Watch the interview below and then come back for more:

You can see the discussion that has again bubbled to the surface because of Isaacson’s article, and I think that is the most positive thing to come out of all of this. At least people are talking about how to save the news. But the biggest problem, that we eluded to on Friday, still remains: The newspaper industry is simply too big to support itself in its current form. (Read more about who actually owns the news here.)

If they want to start charging for content, let them try it and see where it leads them. People will find a way around it and alternative sources will rise in popularity AND quality. Pretty soon the community newspaper with its fleet of five part-time reporters might be able to afford sending one of them to Baghdad to report. Then again, I learned more about the situation in Iraq from the Iraqi doctor walking around filming his daily work then I did from the past six years of coverage from CBS, NBC and ABC combined! If one person in Baghdad can make that much of a difference in the video world, who’s to say one person can’t accomplish the same in the print media.