You can watch the clip that this article is about here.
Last week Jon Stewart appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss the state of the media since Donald Trump has basically announced that he was running for president and more importantly since he has become president. Now while this was also a not so subtle attack of the president, the larger message is what we should all be listening to regardless of whether or not you like Jon Stewart or what your political views are. The state of our media's journalistic integrity is a disaster.
Now before I continue with this I'd like to just take a second to discredit the fake news claims that President Trump likes to make. (I'd also like to state for the record that fake news can not be an illegal leak either because you can't illegally leak something if it is fake. Just some food for thought that the President might want to think about before his next tweets). The president claiming that any news source he disagrees with fake news is like the boy crying wolf when he shares only news stories from Fox News or Breitbart which are obviously skewed to fit the far right ideology. And I'm sorry if you consider Breitbart actual journalistic, legitimate news there is something mentally wrong with you. If you think a person who is reporting about water turning frogs gay, then I suggest you reevaluate the course your life is on. Fake news is not real, but skewed news is.
Anyway. with all that said, it is time to get back to Jon Stewart's actual message. We live in a click-bait world that the best winning headline is going to get the most attention. The media obviously knows this. The more they make article titles and content that they know will get people talking, the more clicks, ratings, etc. they're going to get. The journalistic integrity of producing content to inform the population has been completely lost because of how absolutely ridiculous Donald Trump is.
As a celebrity (and yes right wing, your precious Donald Trump is now a celebrity talking about politics, please get off your high horses), Donald Trump knows exactly what to say and do to get attention. He knows that the more outrageous he is, the more the media is going to try and capitalize on it and the more free exposure he has. And like a crazy girlfriend who can't quite bring herself to live without her partner, the media is obsessed with having the best Donald Trump headline to constantly be reporting about.
The most important thing Jon Stewart said was this:
"Here's my point: this breakup with Donald Trump has given you, the media, an amazing opportunity for self-reflection and improvement. Instead of worrying about if Trump is un-American or if he thinks you're the enemy or if he's being mean to you or if he's going to let you go back into the briefings, do something for yourself. Self-improvement! Take up a hobby-- I recommend journalism. You know, I think this break up is going to be the best thing that's ever happened to you."
Our media needs to go back to doing what it was created to do: journalism, Stop trying to entertain us with the greatest headline or further diving our nation by creating content that is going to appeal to either the far right or far left. We need to focus on spreading the facts of the news and let people make their opinions for themselves, not what the media wants them to be.
