I’m making a thread here because The Daily Show will be, for the rest of the year, a political program. The show is not about Jon Stewart and his return. He’s there only one day a week; if that’s all anybody watches that’s their loss. Jordan Klepper is the host the rest of this week and the other four correspondents apparently will take turns doing three-day stints - maybe in pairs as they did late last year.
People are rightfully criticizing Jon for his glaring bothsiderism on Monday. I’m dismissing it for two reasons. One is that people should never ever judge a program by its first episode. After a nine year break, Stewart is coming back to a new show in a new world.
However, it was a smart move to ease back into that world. People wanted to know if the Jon they knew still fit, like an old comfortable pair of jeans. He learned from Colbert’s disastrous transition from The Colbert Report to The Late Show. People wanted the Colbert character not Colbert the nice human. It took a full two years and Trump’s rise as an antagonist for the show to transition into the sharpest anti-Trump late night show. Jon was old denim, but nothing more.
We know where TDS stands. Tuesday’s episode with Klepper was a Trump roasting. None of the rest of the correspondents are known for bothsiderism.
Is Stewart going to slowly move over to reality as Trump week after week after week says outrageous things that any political satirist would dream about? Will there be anything about Biden other than him slowly growing older to balance these? Will Jon keep his audience if he continue to equate both sides? What will that do to the other three days? Will any moderates find this kind of program interesting enough to start watching for the first time?
I know what the media will do. Ratings for Stewart’s Monday show are everywhere. (They were good, BTW.) I can’t find any of those same outlets giving ratings for Tuesday’s show. Comedy Central at last found a piece of stunt casting that worked. For a day.
The election is nine months off. There better be many more surprises and stunts to keep viewers for that long slog.
Whatever you want to call it this was not “bothsiderism.” The Daily Show is a comedy show, not news. Something Stewart has taken pains to point out over the many years he did the show. He has no obligation to both sides (or any side) whatsoever. Something I would be willing to bet he’d explicitly reject (needing to give “both sides”). There was nothing about his first episode back that smacked of “equal time.”
Stephen Colbert brought on a second host to The Late Show on Monday in response to President Donald Trump’s tweet over the weekend asking for “equal time” from “unfunny” late night television hosts.
“That’s not how this works. You’re the president, we make fun of you,” Colbert said in reaction to the demand for equal time. “But we’re going to do it anyway, just to make you feel better, sir. I will now be joined by another host licensed in “unfunny” and that host will offer balance to what I say about the president.” - SOURCE: Watch Jon Stewart Struggle to Defend President Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (October 10, 2017)
I missed Stewart’s first appearance. But he always made fun of anything ridiculous that happened in politics regardless of the party. He made fun of any acting President. The fact one party or another may do more ridiculous things is baked in. He does not, at all, have a duty to refrain from mocking Biden.
Many people have (rightfully, IMO) criticized Stewart for walking and quacking like a news show and then running away from his journalistic responsibilities once he gets called on them. I’m a fan, and largely agree with him, but I think it’s a valid criticism.
When Fox says “Ah, but most of what we run in the evening is opinion!” we don’t let them off the hook either.
If you look like news, and act like news, and people tune in to be informed, you’re news.
