Jon Stewart was and is an incredibly influential television personality. He and his show have done great things. Watch his Indecision 2000 coverage. Watch his 9/11 show. 10 Years ago, he was one of the few voices on the television that had the audacity to question, or even make fun of those in power from behind a desk with a camera pointed at him. When TDS was at it's peak was a time when people like Phil Donnahue was run out of town for having guests on his show that were speaking out against the war as part of a general discussion about war. What Jon Stewart did took courage. He was smart, and made people laugh while he did it. He was the court jester when people were confused and scared and angry. He didn't just say the emperor had no clothes. He joked about how everybody knew the emperor had no clothes. He was responsible for so many people hearing another point of view for the first time, and some of those people went on to do other great things.
Since then, steady decline. Yes, there have been flashes of brilliance. When he went on to Tucker Carlson's show and ripped him apart, he effectively crushed that terrible show. He destroyed Jim Kramer's credibility, and has had many other terrible people onto his show to destroy them (Dick Army, et all). He helped create Stephen Colbert, and we all saw Colbert redefine satire at a White House Correspondents Dinner. Flashes in a sea of banality.
What we have seen is a drift from a satirical jester to a news reporter that will throw his hands up if anyone even suggests that he is a news figure, even when countless surveys put him at the top of the most trusted name in news. Just because he is joking about the news, doesn't mean he is not reporting on it.
Still, why not watch?
At best Jon Stewart the persona is a hack. At worst, it is just another elitist, misogynistic, center-right pundit.
Watch him talking about the Dr. Laura incident. He actually uses the n word on air. He can barely choke it out. He knows that what he is doing isn't funny. It's just terrible. His show isn't live, and I am sure he saw the script before hand. Why leave it in there at all? Is it because he thinks that everything can be a joke? Is satire the most important thing? Why?
Watch him respond to the Jezebel allegations of his sexism. Watch him totally miss the point. He reframes the accusations, just like every other elitist, privilege-denying person would do.
Look at his Rally to Promote Apathy. Over one hundred thousand people attended. 4 days before an election. The rally's general message was that everyone should calm down and have civil discussions and being passionate is stupid. Kids are starving. People are broke. Gays are killing themselves because they have no hope for anything ever being anything but hopeless. Rational people are terrified and watching everything their family has worked for vanish. Crossing your arms and saying that you shouldn’t talk about these things until everyone calms down is pretty much derailment 101.
Look at his closing speech to the Rally. It destroys the whole premise that the event wasn't political. You can't close a non-political event with a political speech and then tell people that they just didn't get it.
Even after all this, I still watched Jon Stewart and TDS. I wasn't an avid watcher, but I still tried to keep up with it.
Look at his interview with Rachel Maddow. He says that Bush is technically a war criminal, but we shouldn't deal with that because to call him one is a "conversation stopper, not a conversation stopper". He does that whole semantic hair splitting dance of the "I'm always right" crowd by saying that Fox News isn't partisan. He lambasts Code Pink for partaking in direct activism. Yes, Code Pink does some pretty asinine things. I don't really see how wearing a bloody shirt to a congressional hearing accomplishes very much, but he compares them directly to the faux grassroots activism that results in people getting their heads stomped on. What is even worse is that he is projecting the fringe, flashy actions of a group and totally ignoring everything they have done for soldiers wives. It's only a few logical steps from decrying all environmentalists are eco terrorists because the ELF is an environmentalist group.
Jon Stewart is so out of touch with reality that his glib writers and his hilarious delivery don't make up for it anymore, and there is no reason for me to watch anymore. I used to watch him, get some information, and have a laugh about it, but there are better places to get news, and funnier satirist out there. I don't even blame him. He's been doing this for over ten years, and nothing has changed.
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