I read an article yesterday from the USA Today titled, “Obama gets his ‘Daily Show’ moment of Zen”. The article talked about Obama’s visit with John Stewart. While on the show, Barack stayed mostly serious, often defending his record as Stewart poked him about the promises of “change” he made during his campaign. After being ridiculed by John Stewart, Obama felt the need to revive his name and the work he has done while in the White House. He told John, “His team prevented an economic depression, revived private sector job growth, and passed a historic health care plan.” He continued to say that they have done a lot that he had talked about in his campaign, and that they are going to do more.
At one point in the article, the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, Obama “obviously has a constituency of younger voters that watch that show, and it’s a good place to go and reach them.” The article in the USA Today made me think of the discussions we had about the mixing of politics and popular culture, and the reading of real news versus fake news. I am sure Barack new that Stewart was going to give him a hard time throughout the interview, but knowing that his young audience was likely to see the show justified his decision to go on.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-10-28-obama28_ST_N.htm
After reviewing this article it made me think of Jon Stewart as being a “watchdog.” The reason I feel this way is because Stewart posed a question asking if Obama was planning a surprise party. Obama had previously mentioned beforehand that he and his administration has done a lot, most of which the citizens of the United States do not count as “real change.” I think that Stewart is playing something relative to a “watchdog” because he is curious as to what Obama is doing while in office. I also feel that Stewart is something relative to a watchdog because he wants to get answers to questions that many people may ask themselves.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Barak Obama does tend to lean towards the younger crowd and by doing so he felt the need to go on the Daily Show. He knew that a younger crowd is the majority of the audience for this show so I think he chose well. I also think that the pros outweighed the cons for Obama. Even though he had to know that Jon Stewart would make fun of him and ask him some serious questions about upholding his promises, I think by going on The Daily Show, it helped him connect to the younger audience. I think he did a great job of mixing political and popular culture, because he had to know what show to go on in order to get connected to the largest audience.
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