Jon Stewart upbraids Crossfire

Here's a clip I wish I'd seen sooner. If you have any angst surrounding the American political process this season, Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance is not to be missed. Delivering a much needed slap to political infotainment, Stewart quickly brings the hosts to task for their characteristic partisan rhetoric.

I'm here to confront you, because we need help from the media and they're hurting us ... you're doing theater, when you should be doing debate ... you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

An attack to which a befuddled Tucker Carlson eventually responds: "you're more fun on your show". Apparently, while all else is fair game, Crossfire itself is beyond reproach.

Stewart takes some flak for pulling punches in his Kerry interview, and responds by saying that his role is not that of a rigorous political interviewer. Is their a certain level of journalistic responsibility that should be expected of a program like The Daily Show? Yes. Should Crossfire be held to a higher standard? Absolutely. As Stewart put it, "You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls."

October 20, 2004 @ 11:47 AM | Permalink | Category: Politics | Comments (2)