Sunday, October 17, 2004

Jon Stewart On Crossfire Last week, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show appeared on the CNN program Crossfire, a show that claims itself as "one of the longest running political debate shows."  Jon Stewart is a comedian, yet when he came on Crossfire, he didn't want to tell jokes.  He wanted to tell Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson to stop being theater, and start being an honest news program and engage in honest debate.  As an admitted viewer of their show, Stewart begged them to stop what they've been doing because he's had enough.  Enough of their claims to being a debate show when true debate never actually occurs.  Enough of their political hackery.  Enough of their crap. That didn't go over well with Begala and Carlson. What's so sad about the Jon Stewart's appearance is that he's trying desperately to engage them in a serious discussion, and all Carlson wants is for Stewart to be funny.  And when Carlson tries to point out that Jon Stewart doesn't ask hardhitting questions on The Daily Show, Stewart is forced to explain the obvious to the clueless Carlson:  The Daily Show is a comedy program on a comedy network.  Not a news program on a major news network. Following Carlson's "logic," that would be like a fireman telling a doctor, "You're not a very good doctor," and the doctor firing back, "Well, you're not a very good doctor, either!"  That's right, because he's a fireman, just like a journalist can't tell a comedian he's not a very good journalist and expect that to prove anything. Well, anything other than Carlson's idiocy. Related links: View the video of Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire (4.4mb) Transcript of the show if you can't download the video 12:07:47 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.