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My Rating 4/5 "Fake News" at it's comical best!

The Daily Show was one of two major programs that helped launch the More4 channel in the UK in October 2005 (the other being the last series of West Wing). Ever since then I've been hooked. It has been running in the US now for just over "10 f*g years" and recently celebrated their anniversary with a series of flashbacks under the same title.

The Man behind the Show

Jon Stewart has a sharp sense of wit and comic timing; he can have you howling with laughter with just a look or a gesture. He also has a keen eye for the serious issues that are spun by the media or buried by the government and cuts to the heart of it all. He has managed to turn Bush "into a cartoon character" with his impressions, reading between the lines of the president's speeches or just taking them off on wild tangents.

The Show

The Daily Show combines celebrity interviews and "fake news" reports on current affairs with a number of other contributors who match Jon's comic sensibilities well (which includes our very own John Oliver from the UK!) Usually Jon starts with a monologue and brings in others to report further on the topic in hand, satirically playing with extreme and biased views. The interplay between them is usually priceless and you forget it's scripted in anyway.

Fake verses Real

America has often been accused of being completely one-sided in their news coverage, but not any more. Although this is a comedy program there is always a sober underlying current picking out the absurd, hypocritical blind spots within global media events; providing a public service that I feel America more than anyone else needs right now.

Being outside the US it's harder for me to compare this show to "real news" coverage there because I can avoid it if I want to. However, it is refreshing to see the Daily Show confronting the propaganda machine that is American media, to provide another voice for the people. For that Jon Stewart is a true patriot.

For more information see:
http://www.comedycentral.c om/shows/the_daily_show/index. jhtml
http://www.channel4.com/m ore4/shows/d/dailyshow.html

Learn more about this author, Niamh Brown.
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