Here is something worth reading, this is excerpted from http://comm334w.wordpress.depauw.edu/2009/05/
“Jon Stewart’s segment, “The Last 100 days,” is a perfect example of Stewart’s brilliance and why we need his show, cynicism and all. He begins by explaining how our world seems to crumbling with the economic crisis, the war, and now the swine flu, therefore instead of celebrating Obama’s First 100 days, we should be preparing for the last 100 (YES, I know this is really cynical). He even jokes, “we elected Obama, the Christian Muslim, what else does he want from us (he gestures towards the sky)?” Stewart discusses how the outbreak started in Mexico City, ranking it “last on the things that can kill you in Mexico” with the first being, “bullet flu” – another “airborne virus.” His point is that with less than 200 deaths, this is relatively minor to gun violence, the drug cartels, and other wars going on in Mexico. Furthermore, he points out that the media is blowing this out of proportion; with only a few cases in a few states there is no reason to have 24/7 news coverage of the swine flu. This brings me back to a point we’ve discussed before – the culture of fear. We live in a society that is motivated by fear because it consumes our media. The media makes us afraid to fly, spend five minutes in the sun without sunscreen, and now go 30 minutes without washing our hands. “
A beautiful summary by John Stewart.
