How Jon Stewart turned lies into comedy and brainwashed a generation
By Kyle Smith . February 15, 2015 | 6:00am
So Brian Williams goes out (for six months) humiliated and derided. Jon Stewart goes out (permanently, one hopes) the same day, but on a giant Comedy Homecoming King float, with a 21-gun salute from the media, his path strewn with roses and teardrops.
Why?
Brian Williams lied about his personal exploits a few times. Jon Stewart was unabashedly and habitually dishonest.
Though Stewart has often claimed he does a “fake news show,” “The Daily Show” isn’t that. It’s a real news show punctuated with puns, jokes, asides and the occasional moment of staged sanctimony.
It contains real, unstaged sound bites about the day’s events and interviews about important policy matters.
Stewart is a journalist: an irresponsible and unprofessional one.
He is especially beloved by others in the journo game. (For every 100 viewers, he generated about 10 fawning profiles in the slicks, all of them saying the same thing: The jester tells the truth!)
Any standard liberal publication was as likely to contain an unflattering thought about Stewart as L’Osservatore Romano is to run a hit piece on the pope.
The hacks have a special love for Stewart because he’s their id. They don’t just think he’s funny, they thrill to his every sarcastic quip. They wish they could get away with being so one-sided, snarky and dismissive.
They wish they could skip over all the boring phone calls and the due diligence and the pretend fairness and just blurt out to their ideological enemies in Stewart style, “What the f–k is wrong with you?”
Most other journalists aren’t allowed to swear or to slam powerful figures (lest they be denied chances to interview them in future). Their editors make them tone down their opinions and cloak them behind weasel words like “critics say.” Journalists have to dress up in neutrality drag every day, and it’s a bore.
This guy barely had any ratings all the years he has been on. Usually around 1 million. He influenced no one because no one was watching.
Just remember what a bust his highly promoted rally in DC was when he thought he was going to show Glenn Beck up. Hell, Viacom was shipping hippies there for free and they still could make it successful.
Quote: Frank Cannon wrote in post #3This guy barely had any ratings all the years he has been on. Usually around 1 million. He influenced no one because no one was watching.
Just remember what a bust his highly promoted rally in DC was when he thought he was going to show Glenn Beck up. Hell, Viacom was shipping hippies there for free and they still could make it successful.
I realize this is anecdotal, but . . .
The four Millenials I know the best (son and spouse and daughter and future spouse) are/were religious Comedy Central and Daily Show watchers. They don't (AFAIK) watch any other cable news - certainly not Fox, CNN, or even MSNBC. My future son-in-law says he watches Stewart for the news.
My daughter has never been political. Lately however she's gone on an anti Ted Cruz crusade on Facebook. Maybe it's connected with Stewart, maybe not.
Hillary's 2016 campaign slogan: Elect Clinton in '16 - believe it or not, there's STILL some of the country that hasn't been "fundamentally changed".
I would not be surprised if some are influenced by Stewart, just not as many as the PTB thought.
The progressives were clever enough to take over the MSM and entertainment. For those who do not seek out news elsewhere, it is a sneaky way to influence people's opinions.