Writing in Newsweek, NBC' anchor Brian Williams suggests that Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have had a profound influence on television news in general and his own newscast in particular. "On occasion, when we've been on the cusp of doing something completely inane on NBC Nightly News, I will gently suggest to my colleagues that we simply courier the tape over to Jon's office, to spare the Daily Show interns the time and trouble of logging our broadcast that night. That usually gets us to rethink the inane segment we were planning on airing," he writes. Williams says that Stewart has added "another step" to the process of producing a newscast "Being held to account for our faults by a comedy show with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue."

20/11/2009