Handing them their asses.
I found a great video of Jon Stewart’s appearance on CNN’s Crossfire, where he absolutely hands the hosts their asses. Grab it with BitTorrent if you’re into this kind of thing. There’s also a direct download and the transcript for the bandwidth-impaired.
derek said,
October 15, 2004 @ 9:42 pm
Very interesting to watch.
Both Carlson and Begala were completely taken off-guard.
That being said, I do agree with some of the MeFites (and when the hell are they going to open registration? I mean, really.. it’s been forever) in that Jon Stewart is walking a very thin line (especially with appearances like this) when trying to maintain his comedy “cover”. He came out swinging, using humour as a weapon (particularly against Carlson, which isn’t surprising) and regardless of how funny his actual show is, his actions may speak louder in mainstream press.
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the effort (Crossfire is garbage) and I genuinely like Jon and The Daily Show. But, it is no secret that a vast majority of Americans (and now non-Americans) are using The Daily Show as their primary source of news and with that there is some measure of implied responsibility.
That being said, it is up to the viewers to tell the difference…
Luke said,
October 15, 2004 @ 9:48 pm
You know, I read a ton of news on the Web, some in paper (though it’s more difficult being in Japan to do that), and watch CNN and the BBC here. And the Daily Show packs into 20 minutes of time a lot of valid, current material that usually gets the minimal required attention from the mainstream media.
Yes, it’s comedy - and yes, people shouldn’t use it as their primary news source - but I’d rather have Americans watch the Daily Show for news then something like, oh, say Fox News.
Hell, even during the Crossfire video segment, one of the scrolling CNN news-ticker headlines was about a kid winning the world’s first EZ-Bake Oven cookoff. On fucking CNN! Right before an election!
They did seem totally caught off guard though. Even offended, which is good and healthy for them.
And yeah, Metafilter needs to open up to new members - I had to bribe my way in there (not joking).
derek said,
October 15, 2004 @ 11:58 pm
Oh, I know you’re not joking. I even donated $$ and still, no membership.
I agree though. I watch the daily show almost religiously because it’s goddamned funny. Regardless of the actual news content argument, it’s just good television, a claim that neither Fox or CNN (regardless of intent) can claim.
If you haven’t had a chance, you should see Outfoxed. It uses their own journalism (or lack thereof) against them, and nails O’Reilly’s ass to the wall (and, that’s a lot given that the O’Reilly Factor’s days are numbered - thankfully).
Honestly, I doubt that many people use Fox as their primary news source. I think it’s a claim that Fox uses to bolster they’re own popularity and supposed influence. I’m jaded, yes, but I cannot believe that the American people are that ignorant that any number of actual, coherent, semi-literate citizens believe anything that is spouted by that network. It’s the tabloid news channel.
Tech Knight said,
October 16, 2004 @ 12:26 am
derek:
I think Outfoxed’s use of Fox tactics and presentation in their own documentary really hurts the overall message.
The Crossfire clip is also here:
http://mediamatters.org/static/video/crossfire-20041015.wmv
derek said,
October 16, 2004 @ 11:03 am
I agree completely, any credibility they think they may have had was completely destroyed when they used unnamed sources while critisizing Fox for using unnamed sources.
Once again though, Fox is a news station and as Jon pointed-out, they do have a higher expected standard of journalistic integrity than a couple of documentarians.
However, there were sections that were quite good purely for entertainment value and as I mentioned above, some of the edited Fox content was pretty effective. They should have concentrated a little more on that element of the film.
James said,
October 16, 2004 @ 5:37 pm
Ahh dude– I actually printed the transcript. It’s funny, if you’ve ever read much Chomsky, it went over like the proverbial ideological thud in the dark… It was great. Now nobody in the US media will ever mention it again… And don’t give me the, ‘but the blogoshpere’ crap. I mean your aveage American is just bright enough to get their computer turned on- don’t expect them to fish anything meaningful out of all of that text on the screen :)