The episode I watched of The Daily Show came out on March 12th, 2015. The episode itself was about New Jersey governor Chris Christie. It talked about how he said that he had excellent negotiating skills, and then went on to talk about how unhelpful he was when there was an oil spill in New Jersey, and his general corruption. He spoke about how we often brush off corruption unless it's outright and obvious. It then talked about the blizzard in New York and the issues that caused.

I believe that The Daily Show is an acceptable way to represent news. Some people may think it devalues it or turns a serious topic a joke, and while there may be a valid argument behind this point, I disagree.

It is useful to make news more palatable for people who don't have the attention span to read more serious articles. There are a variety of reasons why this could be hard for some people. Some people prefer visuals over words (making it hard to read articles in general). Some people have trouble reading due to dyslexia. Some people, like my friend, have ADHD which makes it very hard to pay attention to certain forms of media due to their short attention span. While I personally am able to read news articles that are written in a professional, non comedic tone, I understand that not everyone is the same way.

I would much rather have people receiving their news in some way rather than being left completely in the dark. It comes across as rather elitist to believe otherwise, and it reminds me of people who look down upon others for reading books using a kindle rather than using physical copies. Not everyone has to access information and learn in the same way.

Another reason I think this form of news is positive is because it may inspire people to look into issues further. I've watched The Daily Show with my family before, and sometimes after watching it I would be intrigued by it and research it further, making myself more educated on the subject. If I had never watched the show to begin with, I would have never learned more. Anything that causes a person to become interested in a topic and compels them to learn more about it is positive in my opinion.

To me, there is very few real downsides to giving the world multiple ways to consume media.