Isaac responds to the Daily Show sexism allegations here. I don't have a disagreement with how he applies it to theater, but I do want to respond to the specific analogy:
Sub in "Playwrights Horizons" for Jon Stewart and racial diversity amongst playwrights, and you've pretty much got the point I've been trying to make on this site.
I'm torn about whether I think Jon Stewart is the Playwrights Horizons in this situation. Because really, the organization that has a greater power and a greater responsibility to rectify things in this situation is, really, Comedy Central (or Viacom?).
Jon Stewart does have the onus to do as best as he can to improve hiring practices if it is within his reach, but to say that it's Jon Stewart's job to reshape the future of the industry seems to me to simply be inflating his personal position in the field. He's not an executive beyond the reach of his show. I really think that it's his employers -- Comedy Central / MTV Enterprises / Viacom that have a lot more power and sway to change the landscape of the industry to let in more women.
I'm looking at Comedy Central's lineup, and here's the list of original programming (not counting their stand-up programming) led by men:
- The Daily Show
- South Park
- The Colbert Report
- Tosh.0
- Ugly Americans
- Important Things with Demetri Martin
- Futurama
Here's the list of original programming led by women:
That's Playwrights Horizons.
(Update: Ian Thal brings up The Sarah Silverman Program as being a show led by a woman on Comedy Central. Unfortunately, the Sarah Silverman Program appears to have been cancelled, which is why the Wikipedia list I referred to to generate the above list did not include it.)
