Fact & Fiction

Former President Bill Clinton sits across the news desk from Jon Stewart.

The cameras are rolling, as is the conversation.

Clinton is recounting the progress of the Clinton Global Initiative, a community he started in 2005 to tackle some of the world's greatest issues. Topics range from the revival of Haiti to women's rights, and Stewart asks probing questions.

It sounds strikingly like a legitimate news interview.

The difference?

It's airing on the Comedy Central network.

On TV programs such as "The Daily Show," it can be nearly impossible to guess who host Jon Stewart will be conversing with from one day to the next, as he matches wits with everyone from celebrity Hugh Grant, promoting his latest film role, to Bill Gates, discussing his foundation's goals to wipe out world hunger and improve the education system.

The show, switching between a satirical and serious tone, is an example of an up-and-coming breed of entertainment news that has the younger generation taking notice.

Nancy Thompson, the journalism and publications teacher at Coronado High School, is aware of the increasing fad.

"It's the nature of teenagers to seek entertainment," she says. "So I do think this style of news will be ongoing. This generation will grow up with it and become accustomed to it, and I don't feel that is necessarily a good thing. People are just fascinated by fame."

Presenting actual news events with a tongue-in-cheek spin, "The Daily Show" and others like it mix fact with fiction to create amusing parodies of current events.

Jaci Thomas, a senior at Coronado, says she loves the dry humor that "The Daily Show" offers.

"I always find myself laughing while watching," she says.

But can young viewers separate the truth from the biased information?

Another television program on Comedy Central, "The Colbert Report," won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing For a Variety, Music, or Comedy Series in 2008. Nowhere in that title does it specify that it's a news program, however.

Even if these distinctions were made more clearly, Thomas says she still doesn't feel that the shows are a reliable source for news.

"The shows are basically facts drenched in sarcasm and dripping with satire," she says. "Most can't see that."

Often teens are stereotyped as uninformed, and this raises the question: Are these entertainment news shows that are more appealing to young people than standard news programs helping or hurting the cause?

"Personally, I think 'entertainment news' takes away from the seriousness of the situations that they tend to report on," says Katelyn Hohl, a junior at the Southeast Career Technical Academy.

But, as biased as the information might be, it still provides viewers with insight into current issues, which Thomas contends is better than nothing.

"At least people tune into these shows to get even a bit of information instead of being entirely ignorant," she says.