High school essay contest elicits praise for Jon Stewart

SPJ chapter awards three high school students cash prices for their essays.

By Scott Horsley, San Diego Pro Chapter

Reporter, National Public Radio

Jon Stewart isn’t a real journalist, but he plays one on TV.  And according to this year’s prize-winning high school essayists, he may be better than the real thing.

Torrey Pines junior Brandon Young won top honors this year for his essay on Stewart, in which he recalled the Comedy Central star’s 2004 appearance on Crossfire.  Stewart criticized the CNN show for “hurting America.” Young writes, “and with his show’s characteristic knowledge of pundit psychology, exposed the hosts’ exploitation of audiences’ love of conflict at the expense of actual political investigation.  Shortly after, Crossfire was dethroned.  Ironically, a representative of ‘fake’ news took the moral high ground against ‘real’ news and won.”

Brandon won $300 and an invitation to SPJ’s June banquet with his first-prize essay, which concludes, “In the wake of the absorption of the media by entertainment, Jon Stewart turns entertainment into understanding.  There is no other quality that can make a journalist more real.”

Patrick Henry senior Josh Tidwell also praised Stewart, calling him “intelligent, trusted, and credible.  That is the definition of a journalist.”  Tidwell’s essay also notes Stewart’s two Peabody Awards, a prize the comic shares with the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.  “Not labeling Jon Stewart a journalist would be similar to refusing to induct a sports player into the Hall of Fame because they did not play for a good team and never won a championship,” writes Tidwell. 

In an effort to boost participation in the essay contest this year, SPJ offered high school writers several topics from which to choose.  Patrick Henry junior Johnny Morgan opted to write about “What the Media Get Wrong About My Generation.”

 “To our credit, we are not a generation of zombies who follow everything that the media says is right,” Morgan wrote.  “We can and do think for ourselves and have minds of our own.”

He urged adult journalists not to judge him by his “turntable shirts” and graffiti-covered hat.  “Would you know, based on what the media shows, that I seek to improve my life as well as the lives of others?  Would you see that on my music player I have music from all genres and that I’m not the closed-minded, crowd-following fool that many would perceive me as?” 

Morgan and Tidwell each received $100 prizes and invitations to the SPJ banquet.