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Nothing fake about it

20 comments on Nothing fake about it

Nothing fake about it

: Thanks to my friend Joe Territo, I finally got to see the Jon Stewart takedown of Crossfire on Crossfire.

This is the single best piece of media criticism I have seen in years. And it’s all the better because it’s face-to-face.

I know I’m late to this party because I didn’t see the original. If you haven’t seen it, watch the clip and read the transcript here. Great lines here (with annoying transcripty things excised):

STEWART: I felt that that wasn’t fair and I should come here and tell you … it’s not so much that it’s bad, as it’s hurting America…. Here’s just what I wanted to tell you guys…. Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America….

See, the thing is, we need your help. Right now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations. And we’re left out there to mow our lawns.

BEGALA: By beating up on them? You just said we’re too rough on them when they make mistakes.

STEWART: No, no, no, you’re not too rough on them. You’re part of their strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks….

CARLSON: But you can ask him [Kerry] a real question, don’t you think, instead of saying…

STEWART: I don’t think I have to. By the way, I also asked him, “Were you in Cambodia?” But I didn’t really care.

STEWART: Because I don’t care, because I think it’s stupid….

STEWART: But the thing is that this — you’re doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great…. It’s not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery….

You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.

STEWART: You need to go to one.

The thing that I want to say is, when you have people on for just knee-jerk, reactionary talk…

This is such a great opportunity you have here to actually get politicians off of their marketing and strategy….

You go to spin alley, the place called spin alley. Now, don’t you think that, for people watching at home, that’s kind of a drag, that you’re literally walking to a place called deception lane?

The most pathetic thing about the segment is that the hosts would not talk. They couldn’t. They could shout. They could joust. They could joke. They couldn’t talk. They proved that they do not know how to have a conversation. News is supposed a conversation. But not on Crossfire.

But what’s so wonderful about this is that a viewer get to confront the viewed, media on media. It’s every blogger’s wet dream.

Pity that the boys on TV don’t know how to listen.

20 responses to “Nothing fake about it”

  1. Bonzo McGrue Avatar
    Bonzo McGrue

    See the video clip of the Stewart interview at ifilm. It’s free.
    http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2652831
    It makes me wonder what John Stewart’s future holds. If he simply replaces Letterman, I’ll be disappointed.

  2. Bonzo McGrue Avatar
    Bonzo McGrue

    Note to self: in the future, please ensure you provide a link that isn’t already in the main article. You dumbass.
    My bad.

  3. Cog Avatar
    Cog

    My problem with Stewart is this, he came on the show with what he said was honest criticism in the form of a plea for help.
    Every time that Tucker Carlson called him out on specific issues, he fell back on the “my show is a fake news show, I am a comedian, satire” position.
    Either he has to be one or the other. If he is going to be a comedian, then tell jokes. If he is going to pretend to be an honest broker of political information, then at least answer the questions about why he sucks up to Kerry, Moore, Wilson, White, etc, etc, etc.
    Stewart called Tucker [and I assume he meant to include Begala] polical hacks who are harming the country. Earlier in the day he also called out Novak and said he would never appear on his show. I have news for Stewart, you are a political hack as well. No one would confuse your “interviews” with the above guests as actual journalism, but no one would say that it was spin-free either.
    The precipitous drop in Stewarts viewers is based on a pretty obvious reason. 99.9% of the jokes on the show are anti-Bush. And I fail to see how Abu Gharaib, war for oil, Halliburton, Bush is an imbecile jokes should be considered funny after the 20th time.
    The last time I laughed at Stewart was when he said he was unbiased and he only wanted to help others become more informed. That was a good one Jon.

  4. pele Avatar
    pele

    They’ve been to long on pervicacious alley.

  5. too many steves Avatar
    too many steves

    And SNL was prescient oh these many years ago:
    “Jane, you ignorant slut…”

  6. Jim Treacher Avatar
    Jim Treacher

    “Every time that Tucker Carlson called him out on specific issues, he fell back on the ‘my show is a fake news show, I am a comedian, satire’ position.”
    Amen. I think it’s great that he wants issues being discussed, but then he needs to quit putting on his clown nose whenever somebody, you know, wants to discuss issues.
    I don’t necessarily think he has to choose between pundit and comedian. He can be both. And I mostly agree with him on this particular point. It’s just disingenuous for him to switch hats back and forth within the same conversation every time he doesn’t have an answer.

  7. RadioFan Avatar
    RadioFan

    There are some more links here.

  8. John Avatar
    John

    Watching amd reading about Stewart over the past few months, it seems as though his career goal right now is to be the next Al Franken.
    He needs to aim higher.

  9. HE Avatar
    HE

    Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart….oh yes didn’t he play a stoner in some movie a while ago? Or was he the “Dodgeball” guy? What ever happened to that chap?

  10. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    What gets me about the exchange is that he went on “Crossfire”…. “Crossfire”…. “Crossfire”! This program has had the same format for years… left v right. Argue and try to shred the opposition. When you watch it, you know what you are getting… sort of like Jon Stewarts show. Had he gone on CBS News or ABC, or Tim Russerts show, then I think it would have been credible, otherwise I kept thinking to myself, “Has he watched this show longer than two weeks?” Please. This wasn’t media criticism at its finest. This a comedian pretending to be an astute political observer.
    Paul

  11. tony Avatar
    tony

    “It’s every blogger’s wet dream.”
    except for those bloggers who are part of the theater themselves.
    oh for the day that some of the top partisan bloggers can be taken to task for the same things stewart bitchslapped these two for.

  12. John Avatar
    John

    Some years ago, when I could still stomach CNN, I enjoyed Crossfire. Their format was adversarial, but achieved the goal of illuminating issues of the day.
    I rarely watch Crossfire or CNN now, but I have seen several short segments of the show while channel surfing. Today’s version of Crossfire seems to have undergone a Jerry Springer inspired remake.
    I suspect that the producers at CNN, under the pressure of lost market share, have tried to spice up the format to be more O’Reilly like.
    In my opinion, Jon Stewart’s criticism of Crossfire is accurate in this respect, although he did appear to harbor an open dislike for Carlson.
    I used to think Jon Stewart was funny, but I guess it’s funny how times, and people, change.
    Comedy Central was one of my reliable fallback channel stops before they got into the business of political pontification. Jon Stewart’s show is an example of what I dislike about Comedy Central, and I am apparently not alone.
    It scares me to think that in today’s pop culture terms Jon Stewart is considered either consistantly smart or humorous.

  13. Dave Schuler Avatar
    Dave Schuler

    It’s a fair comment. But do you agree with Stewart, Jeff? I don’t think that I do. The problem with Crossfire is not that it’s theater. It’s that it’s bad theater.

  14. J. Toran Avatar
    J. Toran

    Just testing…
    Plus:
    “oh for the day that some of the top partisan bloggers can be taken to task for the same things stewart bitchslapped these two for.”
    Well, I’ve been doing that gig.. mixed reviews.
    Almost unanimous from the guys and token-gal being the guest of honor at the “roast”.. no matter what the venue..
    Thumbs down.
    Imagine that! Bloggers don’t like to take their own medicine. Who would-a THUNK it?!?
    Anyhoo, problem(s) doing schtick in other people’s blog is losing track. So, Jeff, I can’t say for sure if you’re vanishing posts like Hussein did “Bush-supporters”, or if I just misplaced the thread I’d been posting to. (Saw the one on (cough) First Amendment bull, but not some others…)
    No matter, you folks all blogged up listen even less than “the boys on TV”. Because you are so FULL of your.. uhhhhhhhhhhh.. ‘blogger-buddy principles’, I’m sure…;-D

  15. Craig Danuloff Avatar
    Craig Danuloff

    “Every time that Tucker Carlson called him out on specific issues, he fell back on the ‘my show is a fake news show, I am a comedian, satire’ position.”
    The trouble with this ‘complaint’ about Stewart is that it ignores the truth and more importantly attempts (as Bow-Tie did) to change the subject. Stewart is a comedian. His show is satire. But he came to talk about ‘Crossfire’, and when someone who is criticized doesn’t want to thoughtfully respond, they say ‘I know you are, but what am I?’ as Bow-tie did repeatedly. As Jeff clearly summarized, they literally don’t know how to have ‘reasonable discourse’.
    Bow-Tie was on trial here, not Stewart. He tried to take the 5th, but wound up convicting himself. I’m sure Stewart would be happy to have Bow-Tie come on the Daily Show and thoughtfully discuss ideas for improving that show. In fact, if either guy (or their publicists) is smart, they’re already negotiating a date…

  16. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    99.9% of the jokes on the show are anti-Bush? You can tell Cog does not watch the show.
    I read through this posting and realized some of the people posting here have not really watched the Daily Show or any of the interviews that the people from the Daily Show have been giving. If they had, they would realize that Jon Stewart is not hiding behind his show. He is pointing out that his show is a comedy show, and that it should not be where people come for their news. He also always points out that if people come to his show not knowing something about what is happening, then they will not get the jokes.
    If you look at a lot of his jokes they are lampooning the rediculous positions that people take and repeat, and never get corrected by the media. Take for example the statement that “Kerry is the Number 1 liberal in the Senate,” a patently false statement, repeated often, and never corrected by the media, yet Jon Stewart was able to point out to a guest that it was not true and point out what the National Review really said. It was a funny moment because you had someone who had been given a talking point, who had no clue where it came from, and so could not respond when called upon it. This is what Stewart was asking Carlson and Begala to do.
    Stewart admits he is leaning left, but he zings the democrats and Kerry especially all the time. Right now Bush is the President so there are more opportunities to joke on him, but he does go after the demacrats when they open themselves up for lampooning.
    Stewart also does a great job of having people from both sides of the ailes and he does ask good questions. To be honest I wish they would make the show an hour so we could have longer interviews, especially with the politicos, because it usually is here that we see less spin then you will find on Crossfire.
    By the way, Carlson was being a dick. He thought he could out debate Stewart, got his head handed to him and was a jerk.

  17. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    99.9% of the jokes on the show are anti-Bush? You can tell Cog does not watch the show.
    I read through this posting and realized some of the people posting here have not really watched the Daily Show or any of the interviews that the people from the Daily Show have been giving. If they had, they would realize that Jon Stewart is not hiding behind his show. He is pointing out that his show is a comedy show, and that it should not be where people come for their news. He also always points out that if people come to his show not knowing something about what is happening, then they will not get the jokes.
    If you look at a lot of his jokes they are lampooning the rediculous positions that people take and repeat, and never get corrected by the media. Take for example the statement that “Kerry is the Number 1 liberal in the Senate,” a patently false statement, repeated often, and never corrected by the media, yet Jon Stewart was able to point out to a guest that it was not true and point out what the National Review really said. It was a funny moment because you had someone who had been given a talking point, who had no clue where it came from, and so could not respond when called upon it. This is what Stewart was asking Carlson and Begala to do.
    Stewart admits he is leaning left, but he zings the democrats and Kerry especially all the time. Right now Bush is the President so there are more opportunities to joke on him, but he does go after the demacrats when they open themselves up for lampooning.
    Stewart also does a great job of having people from both sides of the ailes and he does ask good questions. To be honest I wish they would make the show an hour so we could have longer interviews, especially with the politicos, because it usually is here that we see less spin then you will find on Crossfire.
    By the way, Carlson was being a dick. He thought he could out debate Stewart, got his head handed to him and was a jerk.

  18. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    are u serious Jason when u suggest that 99.9% of the jokes are not on bush??? The real question is.. do YOU watch the show?? of course 99.9% of the jokes are on bush but yes u r right ..he does joke about the democrats …that’s the .1%
    Mike

  19. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    …and this is certainly not the best zing on the media i’ve seen .. stewart is right in that the media is doing a piss poor job not only in the political dept but ALL things they cover and their choice of what they wish to cover … ie.. stupid scott peterson and bulllshit michael jackson crap every day … but i disagree with stewart in his saying that the media basically should play some sort of role of telling the public who is right in a debate instead of lettting both sides tell their side.. if u had it stewart’s way then u’d have more of what is emerging now (which is part of the existing media problem!!) that is.. a celebrity type or personality cult type status for these pansy pretty boys and brainless women that nowadays pass for “journalists”. Journalists are high enough on themselves often having the gonads to interupt respectable guests in the middle of their answers or many of the other ways they are constantly rude or big headed.
    I say we need media to have LESS of an influence in affairs certainly not more… we already have too many Dan Rathers in this world who think they are some sort of messenger of God’s truth … because in journalism school…other wise known as liberal recruitment camps… they tell these falied students that journalism is great because they are the messengers of truth and are their to protect teh public …the indoctrination of big ego’s starts right from the get go by some hippie ultra liberal proffessors … i know cause i have friends who went to journalism “school” and get brain washed … i’ve seen teh brain washing happen right before my eyes!!
    Media personalities should ask questions and then shut their mouths and wait till someone is done and then ask the next question .. i want to listen to the guest not some pretty boy or brain dead chick with too much make up on.
    Journalists are nothing but people who failed in their first endevour in life (ie. business school, medical,, political ) and then take the role of bitter egotistical critics or “reporters” of the very things (as they often “specliaze” in certain areas of “journalism”) they were not good enough or smart enough to participate in… like a film critic is often a falied and useless once upon a time aspiring film maker getting by telling people what is right and wrong in a film when they were not talented enough to get into film making when they tried …. Jon Stewart is right .. the media and journalists are garbage but the answer is not to get them involved more but to get them to shut their mouths and ask questions and leave out their stupid moronic oppinions and HUGE egos!! DOWN WITH THE MEDIA!!

  20. Paul McCord Avatar
    Paul McCord

    I have the full clip if you want it. It’s several MB large, but I think the blogosphere could spare it if anyone’s got the web space…