4 ms·

Very recently I heard Jon Stewart mentioned on NPR and it was in the context of his influence on American politics. It is indeed disingenuous for him to imply t

Very recently I heard Jon Stewart mentioned on NPR and it was in the context of his influence on American politics. It is indeed disingenuous for him to imply that his commentary during that time was just meaningless satire. I would wager that in 2004 Jon Stewart had much more control over the opinion of the voting bloc than Tucker Carlson, and I would secondly wager that he damn well knew it.

smt88 8y ago
I agree, but he also made his jokes so silly that no one could've mistaken them for reality. Most were accompanied by bad Photoshop thumbnails.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  I don't think that's true. For example he joked that Fox News viewers were "most consistently misinformed media viewers". This wasn't actually true (according to PolitiFact, if you believe them more than him) and I guess it was just a joke, but he just said it with a straight face in a serious interview so there was no indication it was any kind of joke. In this case he was forced to accept that it simply wasn't true and apologised for misleading people with the joke, but usually his response is to just shrug his shoulders and basically say 'it was a prank bro'. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jun/20/jon-stewart/jon-stewart-says-those-who-watch-fox-news-are-most/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jun/...
  - ghaff 8y ago
    I think that's pretty fair. Certainly a lot of Stewart's fans took him as a modern take on the evening news anchors and I have no particular reason to think he tried to disabuse them of that impression. And my impression (as not a regular watcher) is he did see himself as a provider of information as well as a comedian. The issue I sometimes had (and this goes well beyond Stewart) is that you can be a comedian or you can be a journalist and when you mix the roles it's uncomfortable.
hashkb 8y ago
He didn't say it was meaningless satire. He just said it was comedy where CNN wasn't.
sophacles 8y ago
I don't understand this comment - the context of the 2004 quote was not "just meaningless satire", it was a response to: * claims that Jon Stewart's show was a biased news source * attacks from various groups, particularly Fox News an it's ilk, that he should stop telling political jokes because their feelings were hurt * Tucker Carlson trying to tell Jon Stewart in that debate that he had a responsibility to be unbiased. Jon Stewart's point was that satire on a comedy channel is not a real news source and doesn't seriously present itself as a primary news source, and is in fact a satirical political commentary show. The point was not that satire is meaningless and should be disregarded.

smt88 8y ago

I agree, but he also made his jokes so silly that no one could've mistaken them for reality. Most were accompanied by bad Photoshop thumbnails.

chrisseaton 8y ago
I don't think that's true. For example he joked that Fox News viewers were "most consistently misinformed media viewers". This wasn't actually true (according to PolitiFact, if you believe them more than him) and I guess it was just a joke, but he just said it with a straight face in a serious interview so there was no indication it was any kind of joke. In this case he was forced to accept that it simply wasn't true and apologised for misleading people with the joke, but usually his response is to just shrug his shoulders and basically say 'it was a prank bro'. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jun/20/jon-stewart/jon-stewart-says-those-who-watch-fox-news-are-most/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jun/...
- ghaff 8y ago
  I think that's pretty fair. Certainly a lot of Stewart's fans took him as a modern take on the evening news anchors and I have no particular reason to think he tried to disabuse them of that impression. And my impression (as not a regular watcher) is he did see himself as a provider of information as well as a comedian. The issue I sometimes had (and this goes well beyond Stewart) is that you can be a comedian or you can be a journalist and when you mix the roles it's uncomfortable.

hashkb 8y ago

He didn't say it was meaningless satire. He just said it was comedy where CNN wasn't.

sophacles 8y ago

I don't understand this comment - the context of the 2004 quote was not "just meaningless satire", it was a response to: * claims that Jon Stewart's show was a biased news source * attacks from various groups, particularly Fox News an it's ilk, that he should stop telling political jokes because their feelings were hurt * Tucker Carlson trying to tell Jon Stewart in that debate that he had a responsibility to be unbiased. Jon Stewart's point was that satire on a comedy channel is not a real news source and doesn't seriously present itself as a primary news source, and is in fact a satirical political commentary show. The point was not that satire is meaningless and should be disregarded.