Jon Stewart

I'll start off by saying my lack of posting recently will not continue to be a trend. I moved to Toronto, didn't have the net for a bit, and started a new co-op job.

I am sure everyone heard the news that Jon Stewart got Crossfire cancelled and right wing host Tucker Carlson fired! Well, at least that is what much of the media claims and what Stewart himself assumed on last night's Daily Show. It obviously was his bitch session a couple months ago, and not horrid ratings (21% drop in ratings for the show in the last year alone and it isn't that CNN moved the show out of a more prime time slot to the middle of the afternoon after decreasing ratings). Just as obvious is Tucker Carlson's exit was because Stewart called him out, not because he was using his CNN job as negotiating leverage over MSNBC. In Jon Stewart's world, he is really that powerful!

I am going to stop here to mention I am a fan of the Daily Show. I have been watching since the Clinton years and have current streak of not missing an episode since sometime in 2002. I have seen Stewart in multiple TV appearances including multiple times on Larry King's show, NPR, PBC, C-Span, and yes, the Crossfire epsiode that apparently is the reason the show got cancelled.

So what annoys me about what Jon Stewart is saying is that he seems to think that viewers are helpless peons that have to watch whatever is on the channel. He is right that Crossfire sucked, but he seemed to think that someone needed to step in to do something about it. He wants the media to have less sensationalism, a noble goal, but he is too arrogant in his puruit. If viewers want plain news, the stations would be showing this, since it is in their best interest to show what people want. So he was apparently preaching to the converted already, then claimed victory when the inevitable happened. If I start to write that a show with awful ratings is horrible and should be off the air, and it gets the boot a couple months later, this does not make me powerful, it makes me observant. If I do have this power then please get Train 48 off the air immediately, I cannot even make it through a 30 second commercial for this garbage (hey, it doesn't hurt to try). If you want news coverage to be real news and not a yelling match, do not watch the yelling matches. Viewership is the only thing that dictates what a network will air. I agree with Stewart's goal, but this does not mean I should have any type of power to enforce my view of what is entertainment on others.


While on a Stewart bitch-fest I may as well start on his actual show. It is still incredibly funny and one of the best shows on TV, but I wish he would start to go after the left as well as the right! Especially in the past year or so, he seems to be using the show as an attack against the Republicans. When a Republican guest goes on the show he tries to grill them, but when Howard Zinn was on last night he may as well have just gone down on him. But I still watch every night, so I guess I don't have too much right to compain... damn hypocracy!