News Satire - Broadcast News Satire

Broadcast News Satire

News satire has been prevalent on television since the 1960s, when it enjoyed a renaissance in the UK with the Satire Boom, led by such luminaries as Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore and the television programme That Was The Week That Was.

In the United States, the NBC network adapted this program and also produced its own content, from the "news" segment of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, to the still-running Saturday Night Live mock newscast segment "Weekend Update". Cable television got into the cable news act with Home Box Office's Not Necessarily the News in the mid 1980s.

Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report are currently very popular in the United States. A 2004 Annenberg survey found that Daily Show viewers were better informed than those who relied solely on conventional network news, and some have even compared the trust and influence Stewart enjoys today to that of CBS anchor Walter Cronkite in the 1970s. However, a study published in the Journal of Communication suggests that entertainment news shows such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report may not be as influential in teaching voters about political issues and candidates as was previously thought. Researchers from Ohio State University have found reasons to discount how effective these shows are in informing the general public. People watching television news learned more about a candidate’s position on issues and about political procedures compared to those watching the fake news shows, while fake news shows primarily taught viewers about a candidate’s personal background.

Fox News launched a news satire program in February 2007 with the title of The 1/2 Hour News Hour. Its creator describes it as "The Daily Show for conservatives", but it was cancelled within a few months. Fox News has since launched the more successful Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld.

In Britain, several news satires have been created, most famously the works of Chris Morris. Show such as the radio series On the Hour and its television version The Day Today parodied news programs very accurately, so they were almost believable and could have been confused with actual news programs, if it was not for the fake stories reported. Morris went on to continue this and several other themes in Brass Eye, one of the most controversial series on British television, especially after one episode broadcast mocked the way the news covered stories about pedophilia.

Currently, British news satire is similar to shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The Late Edition with Marcus Brigstocke, on digital station BBC Four, is heavily influenced by The Daily Show. News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald parodied news differently, by using an actual newsreader as the host. Other news satires include Broken News, which featured several sketches of different news channels blending into each other.

In Canada, This Hour Has 22 Minutes is an ensemble news satire show with four anchors on CBC. The Rick Mercer Report is a spinoff of 22 Minutes with former anchor Rick Mercer, and is also shown on CBC. The 1960s series This Hour Has Seven Days, although primarily a real newsmagazine, included some satirical features in its format, such as political humour songs by actress and singer Dinah Christie.

In Germany, Heute-Show (ZDF), and formerly Wochenshow (on SAT.1) and Freitag Nacht News (on RTL) are popular news satires on TV.