This was high-LAIR-ious, and completely even-handed. Stewart himself may make no secret of his political leanings, but his show is pretty consistently not about taking partisan sides and more about noting the failure of the media to cut through the bullshit. That’s what this whole imbroglio is about, and I suspect there’s at least a partial attempt on the part of the pundits to change the subject and turn it into a feud between Jon and Tucker instead of what it really is, Jon using Tucker as a convenient sounding board for a much larger concern.
Hey, they’re just taking a break from bus tours and shopping. I agree with everything Jon Stewart said, but even I’d show up for Crossfire just to balk and heckle.
Actually, there’s a good chance that the audience didn’t know they were going to be watching a CrossFire taping until they walked into the studio. They certainly weren’t supporting the show in the same sense that the audience of a Broadway play supports that show: tickets to television tapings are given away free. Go visit L.A: they hand them out on the street by the fistfull.
Thanks for the explanation. Around here people (women, mostly) try for months to get Oprah tickets - I didn’t realize it was so different in L.A., but that does make sense.
Last night, or maybe the night before, Rob Cordry referred to Jon, saying “what a pompous ass”. I think this may have been in reference to something Carville said about Stewart on Crossfire. Can anyone confirm?
Yeah, on Monday’s Crossfire Novak and Carville were talking about Stewart’s appearance. It went something like:
Novak: I don’t think he’s funny.
Carville: I think he’s funny, he’s just a pompous ass.
Also, Stewart is also going to be on 60 Minutes on Sunday. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/21/60minutes/main650690.shtml
Crossfire is taped in L.A.?
Am I stupid to think it was taped in Washington (or at least New York)?
This should be good.
The title of that article is “Jon Stewart Roasts Real News.”
Talk about completely and utterly missing Stewart’s point.
True, but the title “Jon Stewart Roasts Ratings-Driven Bipartisan Hackery Purporting To Be Actual Debate” is a bit of a clunker, don’t you think?
Drat. Make that “Partisan Hackery”. :o
They’re not missing his point. They’re trying desperately to deflect attention away from it.
Talking heads on pundit shows may be caught up in their own hype, but the people who write headlines and blurbs KNOW what’s going on. And they’re panicking because somebody with a voice and a built-in audience of willing ears to hear it is blowing the whistle on the naked emperor.
Much as I love Jon Stewart, I’m beginning to feel just a bit uneasy (a feeling a few other Dopers have expressed here, I think) with his oft-repeated, slightly disingenous stance of “We’re a fake news show so none of the rules apply to us.” The fact is, The Daily Show is not a fake news show. They don’t make up goofy shit like The Onion and present it in a mock news style. They report -yes, report- about actual world events. What distinguishes them from NBC Nightly News or The News Hour with Jim Leher is that they then proceed to crack jokes and satirize the more outlandish positions taken by politicians and other public figures. This allows them some degree of latitude as far as getting their information from firsthand sources or maintaining a strictly unbiased viewpoint. What it doesn’t allow them to do is absolve themselves of all responsibility as an informational source. Stewart and other Daily Show affiliates like to glibly say that people who look to TDS as a firsthand news source are in bad shape (or words to that effect). But in my opinion, the minute you start broadcasting accurate accounts of daily, newsworthy events, you accept a certain degree of accountability as a link in the informational media chain.
Stewart is not a court jester, much as he likes/wishes to portray himself as one. He’s a town crier with a wicked sense of humor.
Leno does the exact same thing in his monologues. Is he running a news show?
Don’t think it’s an accurate comparison. I’m not sure what technically qualifies as a “news report,” but Daily Show reports go into roughly the same amount of sound byte detail on, say, a presidential debate or a presidential news conference than the nightly news does. So if the DS’s coverage on a given event isn’t quite as in-depth as Brokaw’s or Jennings’, it certainly qualifies as more extensive reportage than the cursory mentions of a Leno or Letterman.
While I disagree with you, Moody Bastard, because its a parody, and most good parodies look like the real thing, only biting, here’s more evidence for your uneasiness: The Daily Show obviously gets official press passes for conventions and debates, and has the same access as “real” reporters. I found Rob Cordry’s report two nights ago on press coverage at the debate to be downright creepy. They’re treated like real newsmedia, but they aren’t, but they are, but they aren’t… but…
I just like that Jon Stewart/Crossfire as a metaphor for “smackdown” has so immediately sunk into our cultural literacy. Maybe that was Jon Stewart’s intent all along–to invent some slang. I also think that making fun of the event has helped diffuse the tension concerning the real issues at hand. Maybe the Daily Show is popular as a news source because, by making fun of the news, TDS makes things less scary, rather than only less boring? It’s hard to quake in fear at Mess’O’Potamia–it’s much easier to tremble if I’m watching Condi Rice or Donald Rumsfeld unfiltered, even if its the same news.
Still, Jon Stewart is the court jester to me. He takes the king’s words and filters them into salacious, snarky songs. Give him four more years, and he’ll be the Clown in Shakespeare.
OK, how about this:
“I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.”
Again, news show?
You’re right- and it is parody. But this begs the question, can a parody of a movie or song be regarded in the same way as a parody of a newscast, which includes actual topical information of the day? (In other words, it’s not a parody of Edward R. Murrow.) That’s where it gets stickier, I think.
I absolutely believe that’s true.
Loopydude: No, SNL isn’t a news show, but only in the sense that The Daily Show isn’t. They, too, offer accurate acounts of real events and thus can be held accountable to a small degree (smaller even than TDS, since it’s really just a news “segment” they do) in the same way I’m suggesting TDS may be.
I’m sorry, but I think this is total crap. The Daily Show is clearly parody and comic satire, and if it looks like something else to the viewer, I blame the viewer, not the show. The only concern worth worrying about here is that the News Shows appear to be turning into sad parodies of themselves.
In the words of J. Stewart himself, Fair enough. 
But it’s still not a fake news show