Now a word from Jon Stewart

My friend Wesley alerted me to the appearance of Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, on CNN's Crossfire last night and boy were feathers ruffled. You can also go to HERE to try to find a video file in bittorent format or otherwise.

In any case, Jon Stewart went to town with these guys. They expected their guest to toe the line and bring a little Daily Show humour onto their set. Instead, Stewart took them to task on their failing as journalists for not raising the level of political discourse in the country.

Most people responding to the story on Metafilter had an obviously good time watching Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, get blindsided by the Jon Stewart express. Carlson and people on MeFi raised the point that Stewart had an opportunity to grill Senator Kerry when he appeared on TDS and didn't, and some on MeFi and on MSN thought that Stewart often used "I'm a comedian" as a cop-out to criticism about his 'soft' approach to some guests.

I wholeheartedly disagree. What I find troubling is not the criticisms against Stewart, but the fact that they're being leveled at him at all. That was part of the point that he was trying to raise on this show. In a democratic society with a healthy media, people SHOULD NOT be turning to a comedian for thoughtful, political analysis. The fact that The Daily Show is successful only highlights the problem of media reporting in America and in a lesser extent, Canada. That was his point. That was why he was so surprised when Carlson used Stewart's questions to Kerry against him. Carlson was actually expecting Stewart to be tough on Kerry, requiring Jon to remind him that it's a satirical talk-show ON COMEDY CENTRAL! Mainstream media should NEVER be looking at The Daily Show and admonishing it for not asking the right questions. That's their job, their responsibility.

And I don't think Jon has ever thought he was anymore than a comedian. He doesn't have to ask hard-hitting questions to his political guests is because of the fact that he IS a comedian, NOT a journalist. People see him incorrectly as a journalist so their expectations of him are unfulfilled when supposed "important" questions aren't asked. I don't expect him to ask those questions. I expect him to be funny and witty. If it happens his jokes are politically insightful, then so much the better. But that's not his job, nor his perogative.

Again, that's the job of a journalist. He had an interview with Bill Moyer on PBS where he was saying how it was frustrating to hear journalists wishing they could be looking at things critically when that's EXACTLY the type of thing that journalists should be doing. So let's not put the onus on Jon. Rather, the onus is on journalists to do a better job.

So Jon, keep on fighting the good fight. Even though it's unlikely you'll be on Crossfire ever again, maybe sometime on your junket for your book you'll be lucky enough to wake up a few journalists or pundits to the irony of the popularity of your fake news show so that there will be some changes within the mainstream media.