I am usually a regular viewer of Crossfire but missed this particular show.
Frankly, I though Stewart was brilliant and they had but listened and if Tucker Carlson hadn’t pressed him, I felt they wouldn’t have gotten as reamed.
He was absolutely right that these shows masquerade as honest political debate when they are not and it does hurt the country. His point about it being theater was absolutely right on.
The most ridiculous thing was Tucker taking him to task for not asking tough questions on a “Comedy Show”.
BTW, Tucker has extended an invitation to Stewart to come on his PBS show. He probably watched the tape and realized he much he was smacked and wants to get even.
The Partisan Lie Factor (AKA “Spin”) of so-called political pundits in the media has really contributed to the division in this country over this election and in Stewart’s words they should, “Stop!”
Wilma
On 10/19/04 11:50 AM, "Jonathan Cass" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Watch the clip -- http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2652831&htv=12&htv=12&htv=12 <http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2652831&htv=12&htv=12&htv=12> <http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2652831&htv=12&htv=12&htv=12> --before reading the below article. The clip is about 13 minutes long. Listen to the audience reaction and see if you agree with the Dana Stevens' take on it. I didn't.
surfergirl
Stewart Caught in the Crossfire
Something actually happens on a talk show!
By Dana Stevens
Updated Monday, Oct. 18, 2004, at 11:40 AM PT
Boy, I'm telling you. You spend one weekend in the boonies, visiting some crunchy friends with no TV set, and you miss out on the biggest television story in months: something actually happens on a political talk show! Moral of story: never go anywhere, and watch as much TV as possible. But meme time be damned: I just have to say a few words about Jon Stewart's live freakout <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html> on Crossfire last Friday. Well, perhaps not so much "freakout" as "searing moment of lucidity."
Hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala had invited Stewart on the show to "take a break from campaign politics" (Carlson's words), have a few laughs, and promote his new book, America (The Book). Too bad for them that the host of The Daily Show had another agenda in mind. Within less than a minute, the interview degenerated (or ascended, depending on your point of view) into an encounter of the sort not often-OK, never-seen on the talk-show circuit. Stewart was like the cool college roommate you bring home for Thanksgiving only to spend the evening squirming as he savages your parents' bourgeois values. "Right now, you're helping the politicians and the corporations," he told the dueling pundits. "You're part of their strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks."
Things quickly escalated into a full-scale food-fight. Carlson accused Stewart of being John Kerry's "butt boy" and "sniffing his throne." Stewart parried by making fun of Carlson's signature bow tie and calling him a "dick." (Think I'm kidding? Watch the clip <http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2652831&htv=12&htv=12&htv=12> yourself.) When Carlson goaded Stewart to "be funny. Come on, be funny," Stewart responded, "I'm not going to be your monkey." The audience laughed uncomfortably. Begala hung back in either shame or fear, popping up hopefully every few minutes with another opening for a joke or a plug. "Let me change the subject," he begged as Stewart railed, "Where's your moral outrage on this?"
A trot through the blogosphere <http://jimtreacher.com/archives/001068.html> suggests that Stewart's hyper-sincere Crossfire turn may have cost him a few fans, even as it solidified his diehard base. I wouldn't be surprised if the news media's recent crush on Stewart -the rave reviews of America, the high-profile journalists appearing on his show-turned a corner after this. As America: The Book makes clear, nobody likes a civics lecture. But you'd be hard-pressed to ask for more entertaining television than Friday's live smackdown. Stewart's naked appeal to his hosts to "please stop, stop, stop. Stop hurting America," had a loopy, apocalyptic power. It burned a hole in the screen, like Peter Finch as the crazed anchorman in Network, bellowing, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
A while back, I called <http://www.slate.com/id/2105618> Jon Stewart the "court jester" of this election. But he may be more like the fool in King Lear, speaking brutal truth to a king who is already too far gone to hear it. Sure, Stewart's job is to make us laugh, not to lecture us. But as Lear's fool asked, "May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?"
Dana Stevens (aka Liz Penn) writes on television for Slate and on film and culture for the High Sign <http://www.thehighsign.net/> .
Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2108346/ <http://slate.msn.com/id/2108346/>
Jonathan A. Cass
Silverman, Bernheim & Vogel
Two Penn Center Plaza, Suite 910
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel: 215-636-4435
Fax: 215-636-3999
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
