How Entertainment Is Impacting Journalism | Offline with Jon Favreau

This week on Offline With Jon Favreau, The Atlantic's Megan Garber joins. Jon and Megan discuss her recent article titled, "We've Lost The Plot", the effects of entertainment on politics, why we're already in the Metaverse and if Trump was voted out because of entertainment burnout.

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - We're already in the Metaverse
3:15 - The blurring lines between entertainment and reality
14:00 - Ad Break
17:40 - George Santos' TV series
19:15 - The implications of giving into the impulse
30:54 - Ad Break
33:21 - Entertainment addiction Trump's downfall?
39:50 - The effects on us as individuals

Crooked believes that we need a better conversation about politics, culture, and the world around us—one that doesn’t just focus on what’s broken, but what we can do to fix it. At a time when it’s increasingly easy to feel cynical or hopeless, former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor have created a place where people can have sane conversations that inform, entertain, and inspire action. In 2017 they started Crooked with Pod Save America—a no-bullshit conversation about politics. Since then, we continue to add shows, voices, and opportunities for activism, because it’s up to all of us to do our part to build a better world. That’s it. End of mission.

#offlinepodcast #jonfavreau #megangarber

[TheCalicohorse]

As a high school teacher, I definitely feel the pressure to make learning as fun as possible as often as possible. On another note, one of the first books on my uni (media arts program) reading list was Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death". A provocative read, especially since it was published almost 40 years ago.

[hoytbangs]

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti- intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov

[donnaarsenoff]

“The news itself is so overwhelming.” is certainly an understatement ! She makes so much sense.

[sunbornvistoso]

The irony that I’m watching this on YouTube and nodding vigorously in agreement instead of being bored for a while or just focusing on a single task…

[jackbarry]

What a great conversation. Wish it was twice and long.

[dribrom]

Plato could not have been more right when he wrote “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”

[platonicdescartes]

It has always irritated me a bit that everyone talks about our society sliding into Orwellian when they don't talk about how it's already so Huxleian. I know part of it is because more people read "1984" than read "Brave New World". But I think it's also because the latter is a less comfortable discussion, since we are basically already there.

[pavanatanaya]

Listen to any conversation. It is laced with cliches that the entertainment industry pushes.

[donaldauguston]

Just re-watch the movie "Network" from 1976. The most prophetic film ever made. I remember laughing my butt off that it was so over the top and silly that TV or American life would NEVER be like THAT. But it is.

[jacquelinereiterruth]

Just a belated "good on ya" to Offline. I listen to it regularly but have never commented before. I really enjoy the ideas put forward and the intelligent way of expressing them. That and Jon Favreau has the most soothing voice on the planet. Thanks guys!!!

[jgray]

11:57 I think you can credit a lot of this to The Daily Show and to Jon Stewart personally. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was the first really entertaining news program I can remember, and it really made clear that information and news don't have to be boring, and that there's an audience for entertaining truths. You can tell jokes and inspire pathos and more while still getting at the truth, and they were in many ways _more_ truthful than straight news by pointing out hypocrisy in media and the connections between business and government, rather the focusing exclusively on what happened today or in the very recent past.

Filmmakers like Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore probably also deserve some credit, though both are more slanted _(and in Spurlock's case less truthful)._ But basically since Jon Stewart took over the Daily Show, infotainment has exploded, and all the shows mentioned are somewhere on the continuum between pure information and pure entertainment, whereas prior to the Daily Show, most media was either one or the other _(or claimed to be)._

[ragauerk]

Does this apply beyond the US? I mean, really? So many other countries people are worried for us because we have become so odd, like a family member wondering if an 'intervention' is needed. Are we that family member that you just have to accept that their addiction makes them irretrievable?

[bold]

I just wanted to say I enjoy these relaxed long form interviews.

[ulfg]

Fred Armisen is clearly the best choices to play Santos in that show. 😁

[skiergirl]

Marshall McLuhan talked about this too - the medium is the message - I am Canadian, where he is commonly taught in uni - it is ultra relevant now.

From wikipedia: McLuhan's first book, The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951), is a pioneering study in the field now known as popular culture. In the book, McLuhan turns his attention to analysing and commenting on numerous examples of persuasion in contemporary popular culture. This followed naturally from his earlier work as both dialectic and rhetoric in the classical trivium aimed at persuasion. At this point, his focus shifted dramatically, turning inward to study the influence of communication media independent of their content. His famous aphorism "the medium is the message" (elaborated in his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964) calls attention to this intrinsic effect of communications media.[h]

[sagalali]

Jon's comment on navigating social interactions and awkward-ness is all of us getting back to the office and human social interactions!

[cindithompson]

Just getting out in nature, listening to the rain, birds, critters, etc recharges me. And it’s so good for getting perspective on what the world is.

[trannguyen-pong]

She's a great writer/cultural critic

[seanpatrick]

The biggest problem is when news became entertainment.
Thanks Zucker!

[joandarrah]

This discussion is insiteful and helpful. Many thanks to both of you.