The Daily Show
I'm not saying this will work for everybody, but at our house it's a surprise success.
Several months before we started homeschooling, Z started discussing news items with us. This really threw us for a loop. I don't know about you, but when I was Z's age, I'd do ANYTHING to make myself scarce during the hallowed "Walter Cronkite half hour". This may have had something to do with the fact that the Vietnam War(conflict,whatever) was in full swing at that time. Watching thousands of humans dying in the mud was more than my young brain could handle. Anyway. . . we finally asked Z, why the sudden interest in news? His answer-The Daily Show. It seems that he was watching this irreverant news/comedy show every night when he went to bed.
L and I had accidentally come across this show several times and could understand why a smart-aleck teenager would love it. However, the facts that were spewing out of Z went way deeper than The Daily Show. Incredibly our son had been researching news stories that he found interesting on the show. He was actually taking an interest in current events!
The real payoff came a couple of weeks ago. Z and I were at my parents house (my parents are 24 hr/day Fox News zealots). My parents asked me what I thought about a news item that day; I was clueless. Out of nowhere, Z started spouting facts and opinions that, quite literally, made my parents jaws drop open! After the initial shock, my Mom proudly hugged Z, and asked him when he had started watching the news? She frowned slightly at the mention of The Daily Show(they have been known to bash "Saint Bush"). You know what? Since this conversation, I have actually caught my parents watching The Daily Show. I've even caught them LAUGHING at the jibes. AMAZING!!
I realize that many of you parents don't consider The Daily Show "appropriate" for young viewers; but at our house, this show "rocks"!! Thank you, Jon Stewart, for enriching our son's education!
posted by tshsmom @ 9:00 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Holy crap. Grandma and Grandpa watching the Daily Show. I think we might've slipped into a parallel world.
Holy crap. Grandma and Grandpa watching the Daily Show. I think we might've slipped into a parallel world.
Great. He'll be a cynic in no time!
At least he isn't watching Fox News...ugh...
You are so right about the Daily Show. It was Jon Stewert and Bil Maher who got my twenty somethings to start paying attention to current events and politics, and brought them to the realization that these things were important! This was something that I could never do!
It is sad that when polled, people under 35 said a comedy show (the Daily Show) was their most trusted news source though!
Daily's AMERICA: THE BOOK is one of the funniest things I have ever read!
What's really scary is when Jay Leno asks questions on the street. People don't know who was involved in the Revolutionary or Civil Wars, or WWI & WWII When shown pictures of current political candidates, they can't identify them. These people are voting!!
Actually, the stats show a lot of them aren't!
It's the same up here.
That's probably a GOOD thing!
The Daily Show is great -- Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't have cable so I only watch it when I'm at friends.
Thank you for visiting my blog the other day through Michele's Meet & Greet :)
The most embarrassing and horrifying on-the-street interviews are (for me) Rick Mercer asking American university students the same kinds of questions Leno asks, only about Canadian politicians and issues. A lotta students at top U.S. universities seem to believe Canada is a frozen steppe littered with beer bottles and seal carcasses.
That sounds great...but we don't get cable so we don't have access to that show. And we don't watch the news. Ever. No newspaper, no t.v. news, no radio news. I have found it to be way too depressing and it brings too much negativity into my life. That said, if I was ever going to watch a news show, it would likely be Jon Stewart's show. I have seen clips and like the humor! :)
best show on TV, with the possible exception of the Simpsons.
also, all hail your parents for watching fox news, that's the only demographic its not destroying the competition in.
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