Is Jon Stewart the next Edward R. Murrow?

The Comedy Central host's advocacy on behalf of 9/11 victims puts him in the same league as the anti-McCarthyite CBS host, says The New York Times. Is the newspaper crediting him with too much?

"This is an outrageous abdication of our responsibility to those who were most heroic on 9/11," said Jon Stewart in regard to the media's silence on the health care bill debate.
(Image credit: Comedy Central)

As the 111th Congress drew to a close, lawmakers passed a bill guaranteeing federal funding for the health care costs of 9/11 responders. The bill's success is being attributed by many not to the efforts of New York's senators, but to the comedian Jon Stewart, who dedicated the entire Dec. 16 episode of "The Daily Show" to the Republicans' refusal to support the bill. That, suggest Bill Carter and Brian Stelter in The New York Times, could make him "the modern-day equivalent of Edward R. Murrow," the CBS host who railed against the anti-communist finger-pointing of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. Does Stewart really measure up to the likes of Murrow?

Both are advocates who helped change the law: Stewart might call his focus on the 9/11 health care bill "advocacy satire," say Carter and Stelter in The New York Times, but campaigning so "openly for passage of the bill... usually goes by the name 'advocacy journalism.'" The scale of Stewart's impact on public policy "may not measure up" to the role Murrow played in changing the law, but the "Daily Show" host certainly helped turn "the momentum around."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us