Thursday, March 19, 2009
Kotz / Media / Politics The Conservative Backlash Against Jon Stewart
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 5:53 AM
To those who hate the mainstream media, John Stewart is king. His Daily Show is the only one willing to call bullshit on the nation's movers and shakers, unmercifully lampooning them nightly. As these people see it, Stewart speaks truth to power. Everyone else is a poseur.
This naturally doesn't sit well with media geeks. A comedian usurping our role as keepers of the one and only truth? Heresy, my good fellow!
But since his takedown of CNBC's Jim Cramer, the chorus against Stewart is growing louder, particularly from the right. Yesterday, Tucker Carlson returned fire, attempting to blister Stewart for not just intellectual dishonesty, but bad satire (see his own battle with Stewart above). And he accuses the rest of the media of giving Stewart a pass:
...There is a virtual ban on critical stories about Jon Stewart in the press. Nobody in memory has received a longer free ride. (CNBC stands in such awe of Stewart, the network hasn't even tried to defend itself, even against his claim that its programming might be criminal.)The relationship between Stewart and the media is a marriage of the self-loathing and the self-loving: He insists their real news is fake, they insist his fake news is real. He doesn't take them seriously at all. They take him way too seriously. But nobody takes anybody as seriously as Jon Stewart takes himself.
A serious man needs a serious mission, however, and this is suddenly a problem. With Bush gone and the Republican Party in chaos, most of Stewart's targets have disappeared. Yet rather than pivot with the times and challenge those now in power, Stewart continues to attack the same old enemies, at this point mostly straw men and pipsqueaks. A couple of weeks ago, he spent an entire seven minutes mocking the crowd at a CPAC conference.
Comments (7)
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Tucker who?
Only 7 minutes on CPAC is a exercise in self-restraint for a good comedian. That is always a rich vein to mine.
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The research team is the unsung hero of the Daily Show. Don’t get me wrong, I love Stewart, but his best bits are when he uses someone’s own words against them (see: Cramer, Jim). But did he bunker down with CNBC tapes from a year ago, keeping an ear open for any mention of Bear Stearns? Uh, doubtful.
And really, maybe people would be less likely to take a show on Comedy Central so fucking seriously if real news organizations, you know, the kind that tend to run for 24 hours, did actual reporting rather than let us know what their Twitter followers are thinking.
Tucker Carlson? Oooohhhh. Jon Stewart's credibility is shot!
Tucker Carlson is the saddest, most pathetic, shallow, talentless hack there is. This is only a badge of honor for Stewart. Even conservative commentators know Tucker's a moron. He's the obnoxious fratboy rich kid with a sense of entitlement. And I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge conservative pundits who are good. I think George Will is a grump, but he's smart and knows his subject. William Buckley was annoying, but also a gifted debater. David Brooks has a grip on the issues.
But Tucker is like a parody. And let's see, why does he foam at the mouth so much on the topic of Jon Stewart?
Hmmmm...Oh yeah, Stewart ripped him a new asshole in the most widely watched (and rewatched, and rewatched) episode of Crossfire in 2004. It was a thing of beauty. And Stewart tore into the left (Paul Begala) just as much as the right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE
I think Stewart is terrific, and he's still funny as shit. Tucker is hilarious too, only not intentionally.
Oh God, I remember that. Good times.
Did anyone see Shepherd Smith mock the ever-loving shit out of genuine insane person Glenn Beck? Beck had some special last Friday about how he and his blubbering God Squad of paranoid schizophrenics are in reality circling around the socialism-loving, country-hating, Feminazi bonerkillers (like me), and we should be ready for their attack. It wasn’t quite Stewart vs. Carlson levels, but Smith was supposed to be plugging Beck’s special. He decided (rightfully so) that it was retarded and pretty much let everyone know.
That was also good times.
Ashley, TERRIFIC post. But keep in mind, there are things now where you can search with keywords through transcripts and whatnot...It can indeed be tedious but not nearly as difficult as it once was.
