Scandals manufactured of misinformation and fearmongering are the lingua franca of American elections. Last summer it was the town hall follies over health care reform. This summer it’s The mosque “at” Ground Zero (in reality, two blocks away, in the hallowed grounds of what used to be the site of a Burlington Coat Factory building). The story won’t die because it’s custom-made reactionary fodder in an election season strangely short of substantial indignation (the synthetic and dishonest tea party sort doesn’t count). On Aug. 19, Rudy Giuliani, a slightly less doddering version of John McCain, added his shrills to the tam-tams: ““If you are a healer, you do not go forward with this project,” he said on one of the morning television chat shows. “If you’re a warrior, you do.”
Leave it to Jon Stewart to put American mullahs like Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Rupert Murdoch and Sarah Palin, the Alaskan mullette, in their place. In the end the Islamic center will be built. The fury will fossilize into footnotes most American amnesiacs will not remember. But a good deal of damage will have been done, as it’s being done already: the threshold of tolerance is plummeting, and Muslims, already bigots’ favored targets when gays, blacks or Mexicans aren’t around, are the de-facto second class citizens of this fracturing land. United we stand, the good old bromide fuming out of ground zero’s ash almost a decade ago, is as authentic as a Rupert Murdoch stab at anything resembling truth.
Here are a couple of recent Stewart clips on the matter — from Aug. 19, and from a couple of weeks earlier, when the furies began fuming.
–Pierre Tristam
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Extremist Makeover – Homeland Edition | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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??? says
How is the comedian Jon Stewart a credible journalist. His program, on Comedy Central, is a satirical review of current events, not unlike David Letterman and the rest of the late night crew. Even though it is formatted to resemble a news broadcast, it is still a comedy act.
some guy says
“it is still a comedy act” not to some of our dumb voters and a certain editor. Is it “real” news heck no but they dont care it mirrors their point of view
Bob K says
I have frequent political discussions with some liberal family members, and you’d be surprised how often they cite this guy as their source. And I got blasted for citing the Nation Enquirer when they broke that bogus John Edwards affair story.
Dorothea says
Some guy, another person named kmedley, seriously quoted Jon Stewart when defending YOUR point of view on Flaglerlive. If you actually read Tristam’s comment, he is responding here to kmedley’s quote.
Bob K, Stewart’s show is a satirical commentary on real new and the National Enquirer’s reporting is more accurate and more believable than anything I’ve seen on Fox.
elaygee says
The perfect way to enjoy fox news is to remove it from your TV’s channel selector so you can’t even run across it accidentally.
over it says
Elaygee: I can’t remove the funniest channel on TV. More hysterical drama there than on any channel in existence. It’s like they are all horrible actors that think they are real news people. Beck acts like he is a teacher. Palin acts like she has something important to say. O’Reilly acts like hes not the “Inside Edition” guy anymore. And Hannity acts like a know-it-all D-bag. Brilliantly, I must add….
All they need is Rick Sanchez to move from CNN and Lou Dobbs to move from la-la-land they will have all the funny people. Hope i didn’t miss any of the cast members.
Rick G says
Those critics of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show need to be reminded that its subject matter is the theater of the absurd!!! Absurdity abounds and it needs to be reduced to humor for our own well being.. :-)
over it says
Good read about Fox snoooze, the terror organization :
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008200055
Kevin says
Media Matters??? Who educated you Dora the Explorer?
over it says
Dora is a better teacher than Glenn Beck, at least swiper teaches no swiping. HAHAHHA Dora……..thats funny, dude. I get it, you only watch fair and balanced news corps. Media matters only exists to slam Fox news and that is pretty freaking offensive to the sheep. I didn’t know sheep had feelings.
Sooooo……..it was on FOX NEWS in the morning (where the journalists of the year gretchen carlson and the all-knowing steve doucey, and that other dude who is so outstanding i forget his name).. that i saw the morning crew break the story of the Kingdom Holding Company funding the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. The same Kingdom Holding company that is run by ALWALEED BIN TALAL. Funny how they didn’t mention his name though…………..
That probably isn’t true though. All made up by mediamatters……… It also is probably false that news corps donated money to the republicans governors group. I’m sure i got my facts wrong, because that wouldn’t be fair or balanced. I sure that somewhere on the “internets”, there is something about some librul media donation to a democratic group,……………. I hate that i don’t watch fox news enough to know everything. I try of course. They do have the highest ratings. They must be right about it all. Because we all know that high ratings equal credibility. So please kevin, educate me, I am new to this being a sheep with no brain thing.
Boris says
@over it says: I think you made Kevin sad, he didn’t realize that his favorite news channel was funded by an ‘evil muslim’, it seems conservatives didn’t get the memo. LOL
Ignorancecosts says
If the other cloned news organizations did their job, and actually did some unbiased and investigative reporting, Foxnews would not be the success it is today. And the major networks would still have market share. With the internet, online loggers, think tanks, access to once obscure historical documents, meeting minutes, etc…the public can find out the truth for themselves. Eventually. And any fair journalism piece on bias and money in the newsroom would have to mention the funding of Media Matters, George Soros backed political websites and the power grab by Government via Net (non) Neutrality. Fox is outnumbered and outspent. ‘Me thinks’ it’s sour grapes.. 1 side doesn’t like competing viewpoints or new players on the field.