Katie Couric vs. Jon Stewart?

Unfortunately, I could not compare the 6:30 network news with the Daily Show due to the writers' strike (although, appropriately, the repeat Daily Show episode featured much discussion about Iowa).

What might have been interesting would be comparing Fox and Friends with the Colbert Report.. fans of Colbert I'm sure know why. Sadly, Colbert was a repeat as well.

The Daily Show is a primary news source for young adults. Although the show is meant to be a humorous political commentary, for many in the younger age demographic it is their only source of news. (It, too, has been accused of having a liberal bias, although Stewart has said that it's not his fault that it's easier to make fun of Republicans.) The writers' strike has been going on for weeks now, and this makes me wonder - how many high school and college age kids have any idea what is going on in politics at the moment? Sure, Barack put the Bomb in Obama - but without writers, who is putting the Stew in Stewart?

CBS Evening News With Katie Couric

There's something I didn't like about this news program, and I couldn't put my finger on it.

While it did cover some more serious issues - although they weren't too serious, they were actually about on a par with the light summary that the 5 o'clock news gave them - I didn't like the way the time discussing the issues was spent.

Several stories were lightly discussed:
- Severe weather in the midweast kills 32 people.
- Veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than non vets.
- Car bombs in Iraq (covered in more depth than the news at 5)

Yet, the majority of time was spent on a segment called Primary Questions, where Couric asks the top Presidential candidates a new question with each broadcast. These questions are not meant to specifically be about the issues, but about the candidates' character. Some of the past questions, such as "What was your biggest mistake?" were actually quite enlightening. Others, like the question asked today, seemed like a waste of air time. While the question was something along the lines of "What country do you consider to be the biggest threat?" the answers were forced to be so superficial due to time constraints that it was disappointing. Additionally, the selection of candidates is odd; top tier candidates are represented, yet other important candidates like Ron Paul are not and certain unknowns are.

I suppose it shows how the air time that the media gives candidates affects their chances for winning.