Jon Stewart is my hero

This has been slashdotted, but I wanted to post it here. This performance is just amazing. I have never seen someone handle the press so masterfully. He makes some incredibly good points.

Check it out (Need real player and preferrably a decent internet connection).

Or you can get a torrent of the file here

Edit: Slashdot story with even more torrents avaliable.

That. Was. Amazing.

Can't watch right away? A transcript is available at mediamatters.org

Thank you!

I'm going to buck the trend and say that I wasn't especially impressed. Yeah, it took balls to go on the show and come out with guns blazing, but he came off to me as really brash. You could tell that bowtie man was a douchebag, but Jon didn't come off much better. He kept saying how they suck so bad and how they should stop, but he never really explained why. There was none of his trademark subtlety, and despite his calling for the show to actually encourage debate, he did the opposite by adopting the same "I'm right, and you're dicks" attitude that he was fighting against.

I'm going to withhold judgement until I actually see it (you can only get so much from a transcript)... but that's the impression I got as well.

He only said they sucked twice. His point was they do nothing except spout their respective party's talking points. I only saw him becoming a dick when they would not allow him to talk to the subject and were trying to compare his show and his treatment of guests to an actual show. Neither guy (although Begala wisely kept his mouth shut most of the time) was willing to discuss what their responsibility in journalism was. That was evidenced by Carlson (bow-tie guy) saying "come on! Be funny!"

*shrug*

I just don't think he did an effective job of drilling in his point. He started ripping on them from the start. Aside from being really poor etiquette to do on someone's show, any chance he had of making a real point was lost by putting them on the defensive from the start and creating an atmosphere of hostility. I agree completely with the point Jon was trying to make, but all he accomplished was to preach to the choir of Daily Show viewers who tuned in and to piss off the Crossfire fans.

Imagine if the situation were reversed and someone came on the Daily Show with an attitude like that. They'd be lynched by the audience, and their point would be completely lost.

preach to the choir of Daily Show viewers who tuned in and to piss off the Crossfire fans.

yeah, but the Crossfire fans are just a bunch of stoned slackers anyway. :)

See I thought he got at a good point, which is that the media are relinquishing their role as watchdogs.� They are taking part in the spectacle of politics now, and are becoming intertwined with the politicians and the corporations. Instead of checking up on them, they coddle them, but they disguise it as "playing hardball." They really just shout out their party's lines in little soundbites, and it seems like nothing gets accomplished. No ground is covered. And for Jon Stewart to come onto a show with a title like CROSSFIRE, and actually, for lack of a better term, give them a taste of their own medicine, I think it caught them off guard.� Carlson was like "I thought you were going to be funny."

And I actually liked the change of tone from his Daily Show aura.� It was cool to see him more earnest than sarcastic and self-deprecating (though he always got a bit of that too).� I also think that it was all he could do. It seems like his other option would have been to just get on the show and promote his book and take their cracks and make a few cracks back at them.� Instead he turned the table, and put the anchors of the show in the hotseat, where they had never been before on the show.

Imagine if the situation were reversed and someone came on the Daily Show with an attitude like that. They'd be lynched by the audience, and their point would be completely lost.

would never happen. why? because the daily show is a *comedy* show and not a news show. but now more people watch the daily show to get their news than shows like crossfire, why, because they say things that these bozos aren't capable of and they're the "news". i think jon made a couple of very good points (and sometimes it really does not benefit anyone to be PC). first that crossfire and shows like it, have not brought anything to the general discourse of political events. they have not held anyone's feet to the fire, they haven't served as a watchdog for the people, they have basically become part of the problem instead of being an advocate of the people. that instead of fact checking or anything of that nature post debates, there is nothing but a bunch of talking heads putting out their "spin" on how it went. that crossfire isn't a debate show, that its just a bunch of partisan hackery and bow-tie boy is a total dickhead. could he have said it better, sure. i dont' think jon is going to lose sleep at night at all five of crossfire fans getting upset over him calling their favorite host a dick (the five including bowtie boy himself).

what kind of a point would the crossfire guys make on the daily show? that it isn't a news program?

I know! I read the transcript on this.

Jon Strewart is the SUPERHERO of our times. FOR serious.

Jody

If anyone wants a higher res version:

here