I'm glad that far fewer people, at least in my circles, are still getting their news from sources like The Daily Show; still, those shows still have to have an audience to still be on.
My problem with those shows hasn't been primarily the moments like Jon Stewart lecturing the audience on economics with a backward supply and demand chart. That was just kinda funny and proved the economic illiteracy of the left.
The problem is that there are ethics in comedy and I don't think a single one of those comedy/news shows has been innocent.
They always had/have three to five minute segments with one of the "correspondents" interviewing somebody who they disagree with politically and getting them to say something stupid.
Of course you don't need to be a genius to know that they're not bringing in Peter Schiff for five minutes. The interviews are heavily edited down from an hour or more of interview time. So, it's not dissimilar to how people like Jon Edward shot and edited their fake psychic shows, which is also unethical. Yeah, you can edit an interview in an honest way; but, they never do.
There's video evidence of Jim Jefferies interviewing Abi Yemeni because Yemeni had the foresight to keep the camera on his phone running. Not only was the hour interview edited down to less than five minutes to make Yemeni look like a racist; but, of course, they edited out racist comments made by Jeffries. They actually edited it so Yemeni's answers came after different questions in order to make him look bad.
I know a woman personally who was invited to do The Daily Show. Samantha Bee kept asking the same question trying to make her phrase her answer in the worst way possible. This went on until this acquaintance of mine finally told Bee that she knew what she was trying to get her to say and she wouldn't say it. Obviously, her segment never made it on the show.
Context matters. I don't suspect that every word that comes out of a comedian's mouth during a stand-up show is true and I don't need to know in the context. The producers and the performers involved in these comedy/news shows clearly know that a lot of their audience is taking their content as information. Also, of course they know damn well what they're doing with the hatchet jobs that they engage in daily or weekly.
You don't get to brush this off as simple entertainment. In fiction, we lie to the audience all the time in ethical ways. Magic shows are full of thrilling lies that are entirely ethical because the liar and the people being lied to have somewhat of an implicit contract. Lies for the sake of entertainment become indefensible when they're agenda driven and neither the audience nor the people involved are aware that they're being lied to or being lied about.
Comrade,
Comedy is a praxis in the social revolution. Comedy should not be judged on whether a joke was funny. Comedy should be judged by political effect.
Did the joke advance the ends of the party, or did the joke hinder the aims of the party?
Comedians that fail to advance the social agenda must be deplatformed.
Comedy is useful for ridiculing and isolating those who the party struggles against. Self-effacing humor can be used to deflect attention from party members caught with fingers in the cookie jar or under the intern's skirt.
But comedy in and of itself must be carefully regulated and monitored. After all there is nothing humorous about jokes.