September 28, 2009
This past Monday was Yom Kippur. Said Stewart, opening Monday’s edition of The Daily Show, “I celebrated as I do, in the traditional way, with a breakfast of—I believe it was a baconnaise-and-lobster omelet with a side of Jesus toast.” Yum.
After reports on the G-20 summit currently taking place in Pittsburgh and Iran’s ongoing pursuit of nuclear technology, Stewart presented Monday’s best report, entitled America: Target America (embedded below). “As you know people,” he opened, “democracy in this country is under attack by the very leader we democratically elected to lead us. It seems ironic. It has the makings of a great M. Night Shyamalan movie—if he still made those.” Indeed.
The report, which was vintage Stewart, focused on the hypocrisy and lunacy of ongoing attempts by certain elements of cable news to both stir public ire over selected political leaders (which is far, far a field of journalism’s traditional role) and to make headlines and garner ratings. This report was a Stewart showcase, giving him a chance to do what he does best.
The comments about Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson are particularly interesting. Considering Stewart’s infamous confrontation with Carlson in October 2004 on CNN’s Crossfire (which was shortly thereafter canceled), in which he called Carlson a ‘dick,’ just about anything Stewart says about Carlson rings with irony. In case you haven't seen the clip of that show, it's definitely worth a look and is embedded at the bottom.
Monday’s interview, featuring Bruce Bueno De Mesquita (try repeating that 20 times in a row—after you figure out how to say it), was interesting but not overly compelling. Admittedly though, Bueno De Mesquita’s book, The Predictioneers Game, sounds like an interesting read, worth a look. The moment of zen was a reference to the opening report and not very funny.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| America: Target America | ||||
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