Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’ Just Declared War on Uncontested Local Elections
Following an The Daily Show are finally launching their initiative to increase participation in local elections. Meanwhile, Paramount will continue its campaign to decrease its own participation in the President’s furious tweets.
The Daily Show’s new initiative, titled, “InDecision: Take a Seat,” is part of the show’s push to “shine a light on local and state offices that you might not even know are out there, and encourage YOU to throw your hat in the ring.” Or so says the landing page of the recently re-homed InDecision: Take a Seat website. As Stewart explained in tonight’s episode of The Daily Show, 70 percent of all elections held in America last year were uncontested, and the long-time comedic political commentator wants to help Americans who have an interest in civil service gain access to valuable electoral resources provided by nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations — or, should I say, organization. Right now, the New York-based nonprofit HeadCount is the only partner attached to the Daily Show project.
Originally, canceled all of its partnerships with organizations whom Paramount deemed to have too many political affiliations.
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Because it’s so crucial that under-resourced community leaders have as few political connections as possible when they run for office.
As Semafor reported last week, Trump’s fight with 60 Minutes and the roll-out of InDecision: Take a Seat come at an inopportune moment for CBS and Comedy Central’s shared parent company. Right now, Paramount is in the process of securing a $28 billion sale to media production and finance company Skydance, whose owner, David Ellison, sits ringside with President Trump at UFC events.
Trump’s FCC has the power to prevent such a merger, and with so many billions of dollars hanging in the balance, Paramount’s decision-makers have rolled back DEI initiatives on their news shows, ousted long-time 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens and cut the legs out from under InDecision: Take a Seat on the eve of its launch.
Originally, InDecision: Take a Seat was supposed to cooperate with various nonprofit organizations that were both left-leaning and right-leaning, including groups like New Politics Leadership Academy, Run for Something and Women’s Public Leadership Network. Now, the success of InDecision: Take a Seat will hinge entirely on the efforts of HeadCount, which, to be clear, is one of the largest voter registration organizations in the country. The Daily Show previously worked with HeadCount during the 2024 general election for their simultaneous dog adoption and voter registration initiative: InDogCision 2024: Rescuing Democracy.
However, with the parameters that Paramount has set for The Daily Show, the scope of InDecision: Take a Seat will certainly be limited by the lack of collaboration with the kinds of groups that are capable of connecting with grassroots candidates. As it turns out, ionate people who can make a difference in their communities don’t tend to be nonpartisan, obsequious and entirely spineless — people like that usually just become media executives.
