A quick note to The Fix's Chris Cillizza about Jon Stewart
Chris, I like your work, man, and I follow you, so don't think this dismissive or an attack. I was just thrown by your recent piece on Jon Stewart's dismantling of Jim Cramer and MSNBC. You posed the question: "Is Stewart the last honest man in the news(y) business? Or is he, as Carlson famously/infamously put it, a partisan demagogue?" From where I sit, Chris, it's pretty clear what role Jon Stewart plays.
Your story misses some of the obvious. For one, Stewart's chief critic Tucker Carlson is sometimes a decent right wing tool and I do listen to him. But he's just still burned by Stewart who eviscerated him on national TV one evening a few years ago (and thankfully too). He hasn't had prime time traction since and he's bitter, for sure.
And saying that Stewart is just a partisan is surprisingly off base. He has a strong and clear POV, yes, but a partisan? A partisan is James Carville, somebody who never attacks his "own side". This isn't Jon. Jon will lambaste all sides. It just so happens, many in the media and right wing are funny and justifiable targets.
Do you watch the show?
I mean, did you watch Crossfire? Now that I watch it again, Carlson will never get over this.
Comments
What no one bothers to recognize (even in Newsweek!) is that Stewart wasn't hanging the economic meltdown around Cramer's neck, but he was indicating that Cramer and his ilk are complicit in misleading investors and laying the groundwork for everything that now besieges us. It wasn't a personal assault on Cramer, but rather a injurious assessment of Wall Street culture.