"What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably."
In what might be the coolest thing I've seen in mainstream media, Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire this past Friday, ostensibly to promote his new book, and just took the show over. Slamming the hosts for serving politicians' interests instead of the public's, Stewart begged them to "stop hurting America," laughed at "news organizations [looking] to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity," and called their whole spin charade of political debate "theater."
There are too many great quotes to list them all; here's the full CNN transcript, a shorter MTV.com summary, and most importantly, the must-watch video of the segment in Windows Media Viewer format.
Update 10/19: IFILM has Stewart's followup comments on the Daily Show, while the Washington Post carries Crossfire's response.
Update 10/21: The New York Times gets into the act:
Mr. Stewart's . . . outburst stood out because he said what a lot of viewers feel helpless to correct: that news programs, particularly on cable, have become echo chambers for political attacks, amplifying the noise instead of parsing the misinformation. Whether the issue is Swift boat ads or Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment suit, shows like "Crossfire" or "Hardball" provide gladiator-style infotainment as journalists clownishly seek to amuse or rile viewers, not inform them . . .
What distinguishes Mr. Stewart from Jay Leno and David Letterman is that the Comedy Central star mocks the entire political process, boring in tightly on the lockstep thinking and complacency of the parties and the media as well as the candidates. More than other television analysts and commentators, he and his writers put a spotlight on the inanities and bland hypocrisies that go mostly unnoticed in the average news cycle.
(via Waxy)
October 17, 2004 02:11 PM
Jon Stewart.
Composed.
Calm.
Pointed.
Nicely done.
Posted by: Tara at October 18, 2004 2:25 PM