Are Daily Show Viewers Smarter than The Factor's?

Monday, September 27, 2004

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK - The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly kept referring to "The Daily Show" audience as "stoned slackers." So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?

Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research.

O'Reilly's teasing came when Stewart appeared on his show earlier this month.

"You know what's really frightening?" O'Reilly said. "You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary, but it's true. You've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night and they can vote."

"If the head of General Motors was watching O'Reilly's show, that could be very important to us," said Doug Herzog, Comedy Central president.

"If you listen to O'Reilly, you get the sense that it was crazy longhairs behind the show," he said. "And it's not. It's great, smart television that attracts a well-compensated audience, most of whom are voting age."

Comedy Central also touted a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which said young viewers of "The Daily Show" were more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don't.

Although seemingly taken aback by repeated "stoned slackers" references while talking with O'Reilly, Stewart was ready with a joke.

"This election is going to rely on the undecided," he said. "And who is more undecided than stoned slackers? Ice cream or pretzels? Ice cream or pretzels? What's it going to be?"

Whether it's the slacker or no-slacker zone, O'Reilly is entering it Oct. 7, when he's scheduled to appear on "The Daily Show.

I would not be all that surprised if this turned out to be true. The Daily Show, in all its goofiness actually uses the power of irony to make several logical points missed by the mass media. Through humor, the program recaps the day's events that would otherwise be unknown to those who don't watch cable news or have time to read the newspaper everyday.

Hot-headed conservatives regularly dismiss The Daily Show as being another liberally biased program, but such claims are nonsense. Jon Stewart makes fun of everyone and gives them free passes when they have the courage to show up for an interview.