come on, really?

Hm.

So, found myself grazing the fields of Jezebel's offerings today and came upon this somewhat of an expose of The Daily Show. As a former devoted and now occasional viewer of the show, I had always noticed that women were scarce but I didn't think much of it. I'm long past hoping that women or women's contributions will be represented in any substantial way in mainstream media. The gist of the article states that women have rarely been hired as correspondents (or writers, I presume) nor have those hired remained in the cast as long as their male counterparts. It is highly doubtful that this is due to there not being enough women out there in the world who follow the news, have well informed opinions, and are capable of making with the funnies. Of course, they also have to be easy on the eyes or, hey, a Playboy bunny in order to get the gig. The first comment left was particularly poignant:

"We don't spend our whole lives being told how gross we are, we don't spend our lives being encouraged to indulge our every whim, whether it's a fart or a fuck, and we don't spend our lives being taught to embrace our flaws and deem ourselves awesome anyway (as so often is the case with guys. See: "every dude deserves a hot chick")."

What is interesting to me is that The Daily Show isn't even that good, anyway. It's become a parody of itself, and just like any other liberal "news" source, it hand picks stories that fit right in with it's world view. It's not informative or broadening the scope of journalism. For the type of content that is delivered, there is all the more reason to skip it and go straight for The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert has the star quality that is sought from that audience and his delivery is exactly what those viewers want. The Daily Show is not about seriously analyzing or criticizing politics and current events any more than Fox News is trying to deliver a fair and balanced report of news from around the world. However, the average viewer of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report is most likely more informed, centered in their politics, and have more good will toward people than the average FN viewer. I hope. 

(Harper's)