Satire news shows are funny, I get that. Most mainstream media outlets have become silly, even irrelevant. Strong words, I know.
But seriously, some information needs to publicized with decent research. And looked upon from all sides, without any judgement from the presenter. let the viewer decide what it wrong or right (morally speaking). America has made satire news shows popular but they actually are really biased. Which makes them enormously dangerous because they inform people in the wrong way.
Let’s take one example a very touchy and but good subject. Gun control. It’s a big one.
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Look, whether you think people kill people or guns kill people, that is up to you to decide. In order to decide that, you need the right information, without any sarcasm, irony or what have you. You need objective information. An example is of how a shows like john olivers or stephen colbert actually work is explained below by Stephen Colbert himself during a new york times interview.
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Stephen Colbert is not a journalist, he is a highly paid actor with a background in comedy. He even explains that the show needs to be funny and entertaining, thus not objective and not giving you all the right information.
I’m not judging, not at all. I’m just merely afraid that a lot of us base our opinions and maybe even voting decisions upon biased information. Myself I pay for an independent newspaper (follow the money, ftm.nl) . The people behind it are thoroughly researched by myself but also by industry professionals and experts. Then I watch journeyman pictures on YouTube, correctiv and I follow a bunch of journalists and investors on twitter. Do I agree with everything I read, no. I have my own beliefs. But it helps to have decent sources of information.
Personally I stopped watching satire news shows. Their essence is to entertain, gain popularity and just to be funny. Again, it is up to you.