Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is lampooned by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. The criticism is about the mayor's handling of a home weatherization program. Linda Brill reports.
After a week off during which significant portions of the world suddenly became the contents of a hellbound handbasket, The Daily Show returned Monday night to launch its own satirical bombardment of US foreign policy. Jon Stewart and John Oliver staged an infomercial-style sales pitch for a variety of “Freedom Packages,” and while the bit was about as subtle as a leopard-print Snuggie®, it was well-executed and Ginsu-sharp. MORE...Howie P.S.: Once again, in the U.S. the best political commentary comes from the comedians. If you prefer serious punditry, Glenn Greenwald points us to Eugene Robinson:
Gaddafi is crazy and evil; obviously, he wasn’t going to listen to our advice about democracy. The world would be fortunate to be rid of him. But war in Libya is justifiable only if we are going to hold compliant dictators to the same standard we set for defiant ones. If not, then please spare us all the homilies about universal rights and freedoms. We’ll know this isn’t about justice, it’s about power.
Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) explains how Jon Stewart of The Daily Show changed Fox News coverage of a bill to help 9/11 first responders.
It was heady, it was thoughtful, it was nuanced out the wazoo—the Stewart/Maddow Comedy/Journalism Conference of 2010 [1] was the opposite of everything that Jon Stewart objects to in our “24-hour politico pundit panic conflict-o-nator.” But much like his fellow believer in bipartisanship, Barack Obama, Stewart came away empty-handed this week from a high-stakes political summit.
Stewart had asked for the interview with Rachel Maddow in order to clear up the perception that his rally last month was whiffy and not about anything, as Bill Maher put it [2]. Of course it was about something—it was about the corrosive effect of the hype, noise, and tone in political media today. Stewart has always had a tone jones: If a presentation is too loud (Olbermann), too goofy (Rick Sanchez), or too shrill (Code Pink, he says), it waves a red cape before his comedic bull. Last night he cited a clip he used to promote his rally of a woman shouting that Bush was a war criminal. “Technically he is,” Stewart said. Then why equate that charge with the far right’s contentions that Obama is Hitler, a socialist, and/or a Kenyan anti-colonist Muslim, none of which is technically, or otherwise, remotely true? “We were talking about tone there, not content necessarily,” Stewart told Maddow. MORE...
Where exactly is the overlap between what Jon Stewart does on The Daily Show and what Rachel Maddow does on her show? It's all bout discerning the line that satire draws between news and entertainment. MORE...
Every grassroots citizen movement in every country has to start building its own media, now, urgently, immediately, to have a fighting chance at defining itself and its message before public opinion, or big media will continue pummeling the hope and inspiration out of everyone.And that’s why Jon Stewart’s message on Saturday came at the exact opportune moment in history, because starting tonight, more and more people in the United States and elsewhere are going to realize that the problem in our cultures is much bigger than mere politics. The broken political systems are mere symptoms of what Stewart described when he observed: “The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker.” Every time I have written against panic and “Chicken Little” approaches to politics, it has been from that same instinct: that overreaction makes its practitioners not only useless as change agents, but also unattractive and unappealing to the great mass of people out here who we need to organize and convince to get almost anything real done. MORE...
They did an unfortunately clumsy bit at the end which indicated both sides were equally bad and Jon gave a very uninspiring speech about how both sides need to calm down. (Of course the only ones who will hear it are liberals, but whatever ...) MORE...
"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart took a break from the comedy routines at his "Rally to Restore Sanity" in Washington, D.C. to make a sincere plea to his audience.Howie P.S.: Can't find any video of Colbert. I guess Fear stayed home. C-SPAN has posted video (03:06:04) of the whole damn thing. H/t to Peter Ray.
He thanked everyone for coming, and cautioned that the event wasn't a counter-protest toward people of faith, people of activism, or people who live in America's "heartland." He blamed the media for creating a certain mania within the American public.
"If we amplify everything, we hear nothing," he told a crowd of cheers, and later said that the back-and-forth name-calling he continually sees on TV needs to stop, saying, "the press is our immune system, if it over-reacts to everything we actually get sicker."
Stewart said, "The country's 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems. But its existence makes solving them that much harder."
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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On The Daily Show last night, President Obama acknowledged to Jon Stewart that things have gotten a little crazy since he's taken office. "The one other thing that might have made a difference is if you held the 'Rally To Restore Sanity' two years ago," Obama said.Howie P.S.: For another account, see "Laughs in short supply as Barack Obama gets serious on The Daily Show" (GuardianUK).
Stewart mostly questioned the President on the difference between the rhetoric during the campaign, and the reality of what's been accomplished: "Are you disappointed in how it's gone, are you surprised that other people, even your base, can be disappointed, or do you reject that narrative?" MORE...
Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert will march together on Washington.
Or against each other in Washington.
Either way, expect plenty of Comedy Central fans to show up on October 30 when Stewart's "Rally To Restore Sanity" will meet Colbert's "March To Keep Fear Alive" in the nation's capital.
The duo have been hinting at a major announcement for several episodes in a mock response to Glenn Beck's own "Restoring Honor" rally that was held this year on the anniversary of a famous Martin Luther King speech at the same monument. There's no indication that the announced get-together is a joke, though. Both comedians are telling their audiences to book hotel rooms now (though for different reasons, as you'll see).
"It'll be like being in a chat room," Stewart explained. "But real."
Stewart punctuated his announcement on the earlier program with a homemade-looking banner reading, "Take It Down A Notch For America."
Colbert followed up with an announcement on his own show, and insisted that he would "notch it up a scotch."
Each man ventured into the other's studios for moments you'll just have to see for yourself ...
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Until Obama's Labor Day speech in Milwaukee and his statement of principles Wednesday near Cleveland, it was not clear how much heart he had in the fight or whether he would ever offer a comprehensive argument for the advantage of his party's approach.Howie P.S.: Tim Kaine visits Jon Stewart, video (07:32), who isn't buying the new Democratic happy-talk.In the absence of a coherent case, Republicans were winning by default on a wave of protest votes. Without this new effort at self-definition, Obama was a blur: a socialist to conservatives, a sellout to some progressives, and a disappointment to younger Americans who wondered what happened to the ebullient, hopeful guy they voted for.
That's why the Milwaukee-Cleveland one-two punch mattered. The first speech showed Obama could fight and enjoy himself in the process. The second speech spelled out why he has chosen to do battle. MORE...
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Jon Stewart does his usual great take on how the gay marriage ruling in California is handled by the press, which is still figuring out how to cover some issues.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart tore into the Democrats' handling of both the Massachusetts special election and health care reform.Howie P.S.: He didn't get to privatize Social Security.
"Let me see if I have this straight. You need to replace perhaps the most beloved liberal in the history of the Senate with a candidate that believes Curt Schilling is a Yankee fan. Because if this lady loses, the health care reform bill that the beloved late senator considered his legacy will die," Stewart said. "And the reason it will die is because if Coakley loses, Democrats will only have then an 18-vote majority in the Senate. Which is more than George W. Bush ever had in the Senate when he did whenever the f**k he wanted."
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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President Obama channels George W. Bush in his speech announcing the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Lou Dobbs Goes Rogue | ||||
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| The Gay After Tomorrow | ||||
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