I just couldn’t believe it. Jon has had a lot of distinguished guests, but has he ever had a sitting head of state on the show before? And the guy has a book out, being sold in the U.S.? That’s kind of . . . surreal. I mean, the way things are going, we might be at war with Pakistan one of these days, or something close to it . . . This is like Saddam Hussein appearing on Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show back in the '80s, when he was a U.S. ally.
Is Comedy Central broadcast in Pakistan?
I spent the entire interview asking “Does he know this is a comedy show? Did someone tell him that?”
It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the Western-educated economic elite catch it on satellite.
Musharraf seriously weighed the option of taking on the U.S.? Yikes, but not entirely unexpected, I guess. I kinda like the way he skirted the Bush v. Osama in a local Pakistani election question. I suspect the winner would be the latter.
I like how Jon greeted Musharaff, offered him some tea, exchanged pleasantries, and then casually opened the interview with, “So where is Osama Bin Laden?”
As someone who is not particularly predisposed to like Musharraf, I thought it was a pretty good and informative interview. In fact, I think I got more out of it than I did the 60 minutes piece on him from last week.
You know, with that, Jon Stewart might be doing more than any other American in trying to find Osama.
Sales from this appearance alone will probably double the GNP of the whole country (excluding dope).
I listened to an interview with him on CBC Radio. I can not say I like the man’s attitude.
He was a little different with the folks at the CBC than he was with Mr Stewart. I saw the Daily show interview before I heard about the 5 dead Canadian remark.
He was… well I guess… as Jovial as he is capable of being with Jon Stewart and even took the ribbing without getting too ruffled. Perhaps because he knew it was a comedy show he didn’t feel as confrontational.
The Daily Show interview did proove something. Early on Bush and Co didn’t have any qualms early on about threatening to bomb a nuclear capable country…
Tea and Twinkies (“made of elements that are not individually edible, but, when combined, are”) alone, just because whimsy is not dead, made this worthwhile.
By the way, Pervez Musharraf is not some rube from the Centralasian town of (translated) Hicksville. He knows what he wrote, he knows what the English translation says, he knows what television is and who the interviewer is before he walks out on stage, and he has thought about the effect what he says on this show might have on the people who are likely to listen.
I really wanted to hear Jon say “So, you’re a military dictator. What’s that like?”
We got a transcript somewhere? It’s not the same, I know, but… well, at work and the Tivo blew up when I tried to do something. My fault, but I’m going to have to reimage the drive.
I thought it a good interview, and Jon did well for having such a large figure on the world stage there.
I wonder if Jon being jewish will play against Pervez in some places. Although the places it would probably hurt him, probably dont watch alot of TV.
You can watch it at ComedyCentral.com…
I got the definite impression that he either knew the interview would be broadcast in Pakistan, or that a transcript would be made available. He said that the decision to support the US was based solely on the national interest of Pakistan, where one might expect him to suggest that a “duty to the global community” or somesuch was involved.
Surprisingly candid, but I imagine his rationale was, “If I don’t say it was solely based on national interest, the fundamentalists will claim that I’m selling out the nation”, rather than, “hey, let’s be really really honest.”
I would love to have seen Musharraf do a spit-take after the OBL question.
CNN International has broadcast a weekly "The Daily Show: Global Edition " for a few years. It focuses more (though not exclusively) on international news than on U.S. news. Each episode consists of headlines, interviews, commentaries and correspondent segments from the previous week. Stewart tapes an exclusive intro and conclusion (outro?) for the episode, and the “moment of Zen” at the end of each episode becomes “the international moment of Zen.”
I don’t know how popular it is in Pakistan but it airs on Saturday nights on the south Asian version of CNNI.
Since he refused to answer some questions at the Presidential press conference because his publisher didn’t want him to spoil something from the book, I’m sure he was fully briefed by handlers from the book company.