The reason I watch The Daily Show so religiously

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Note: The video opens with Jon Stewart knocking Rick Santelli and Santelli’s highly publicized rant about President Obama’s plan to save what he called “loser” homeowners from foreclosure. This may not resonate with us (the Singaporeans mainly), but I encourage you to stay with the video until the real gun is pulled out from the sheath at around 2:03.

This is a comedy news show, but I find myself feeling more sad than laughing out loud watching the numerous slips of CNBC. My favourite quote?

If I’d only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today… Provided I’d started with $100 million.

I remembered watching this episode of The Daily Show and wondered just how did the writers manage to dig out all the dirt. It’s no simple task, with references going all the way back into October 4, 2007.

Could we have such journalism in Singapore? That was a rhetorical question. Yeah… Jack Neo’s movies do have their moments where they dig at several policies that Singapore government put into place. But those are like using a straw to cane the kid. The act of implementing punishment is there but it does not have much effect in making sure that there would be future corrections. (FYI, I do not advocate physical punishments.)

Suddenly I am reminded of the days when I’d read Mr Brown’s column in the Today newspaper (link to all the published columns) every weekend. Each of his articles presented the actuality of the problems that Singapore faced, wrapped into a light and humorous package. But in July 2006, his column proved to too sharp for someone’s comfort and was pulled after his post about the increasing cost of living in Singapore. Luckily there’s always the Internet, and recently, Twitter.

I guess we all should just be a little more aware of what is being reported in the mainstream media. Consume, but verify and verify again.

Sidenotes

• This should be one of my blog posts with the longest title ever.
• My understanding of what “Howard Beale moment” means after some research:
  • Howard Beale was a character in the 1976 movie Network (written by the brilliant and underappreciated Paddy Chayefsky.) Chayefsky gave Beale, a television news commentator, an absolutely devastating monologue that is the linchpin of the movie.

• • So a “Howard Beale moment”, when applied to a newscaster, occurs when he/she cannot stand the current situation anymore and vent their frustrations on his/her show.
• I tasted vomit in my mouth when the question “Is it fun being a billionaire?” came.
• Many thanks to the re-tweet from Mr Brown that prompted me to re-watch The Daily Show episode again. And several other references.