Jon Stewart in a Couple Words
I was waiting to have a word on the legacy of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. I didn't really know what to expect - other than gleeful hate from the Foxers and their ilk (lots of ilk out there). There are lots of raves for what was a historically important and funny show - try putting those two concepts together any time soon.
There were a few that tried to spin Stewart's legacy to make a unique point much in the way that spinning the steering wheel at 200 kph is a unique way to drive. Of course, both are something you only do once. The article in the link says Stewart and Trump are the same because they both made news into entertainment. Never mind the fact that Stewart's whole job was to turn news into entertainment. Trump is running for what's considered to be an important political office. Being funny is only good in one of the two.
And then there are those who pointed out that he wasn't such a great Progressive by Progressive standards. Sure - but he never pretended to be. I'll admit to being disappointed when he didn't turn his deadly wit on some really bad actors - like the banksters who killed capitalism and then stole the gold fillings from its teeth.
But what I think is missing from friend and foe alike is what Stewart really set out to achieve: honesty. He was brutally honest to some brutes who were not used to being told the truth. Indeed, he found his voice when the national leadership silenced all the others. In the wake of 9/11, a McCarthy-like right-wing martial law on thought was enforced in the United States. The entire Bush-era boiled down to: 'you're either with us or you're against us.'
And it counted as 'against' when any of the Great Leader's decisions were questioned or even discussed. Great Leader Bush was the self-professed "Decider." Dick Cheney was the snarling beast who would destroy anyone who was in the way. and it wasn't just Fox News - though they were the loudest and most strident - who would shut down dissent.
It's hard to capture the feeling those days now. One incredulity led to another. America was a North Korea-like one party state. Quivering Democrats were fighting each other to be the first vote for the AUMF and soon the Iraq War. They killed thousands of us and we killed hundreds of thousands of them (and counting) on a lie told by a cabal of demagogues.
And outside the party, all we had was Jon.
Any voice questioning or criticising was shut down. It was either stomped out by the Fox jackboots or was simply not allowed to be aired. Except for Jon.
Throughout those dark days, there was one place to go for truth. When every government statement was a deliberate lie and every reporter a stenographer, Stewart was the only truth-teller. And that took something that did not exist - and is still missing - in the media:
Courage.
Jon didn't give us the Progressive line as many wanted to do or accused him of doing. He told the truth - and made it funny. As he says to the Guardian: “I live in a constant state of depression. I think of us as turd miners. I put on my helmet, I go and mine turds, hopefully I don’t get turd lung disease.”
He wasn't mining for stories to fit a preconceived narrative, like Fox. And he didn't just make shit up to fit a worldview, like Fox. Because the American right has become so cartoonish, has embraced willful ignorance and unbridled military violence as mundane approaches to all questions, the act of speaking the truth itself became an act of rebellion.
For a long time we had one rebel: Jon. And he took the toughest assignments, unflinchingly, willingly. He repeatedly took on the loudest bully on Fox - Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly actually had a body language expert come on his show after Stewart to analyse Stewart - clearly hoping to show that Jon had been intimidated. The result? Jon was trying to intimidate O'Reilly.
He WANTED Rumsfeld. He wanted the odious Dick Cheney to come to his show and be shown as what they were: cowards and bullies. He didn't get them all, but he was pretty damn close.
To do that, you need a fire in your belly, and that's hard to sustain after a decade. For Jon, he's calling it after 16 years. For whatever he was or was not, he was honest and he was courageous at a time when it was dangerous to be either. Oh, and he was damn funny, too.
There were a few that tried to spin Stewart's legacy to make a unique point much in the way that spinning the steering wheel at 200 kph is a unique way to drive. Of course, both are something you only do once. The article in the link says Stewart and Trump are the same because they both made news into entertainment. Never mind the fact that Stewart's whole job was to turn news into entertainment. Trump is running for what's considered to be an important political office. Being funny is only good in one of the two.
And then there are those who pointed out that he wasn't such a great Progressive by Progressive standards. Sure - but he never pretended to be. I'll admit to being disappointed when he didn't turn his deadly wit on some really bad actors - like the banksters who killed capitalism and then stole the gold fillings from its teeth.
But what I think is missing from friend and foe alike is what Stewart really set out to achieve: honesty. He was brutally honest to some brutes who were not used to being told the truth. Indeed, he found his voice when the national leadership silenced all the others. In the wake of 9/11, a McCarthy-like right-wing martial law on thought was enforced in the United States. The entire Bush-era boiled down to: 'you're either with us or you're against us.'
And it counted as 'against' when any of the Great Leader's decisions were questioned or even discussed. Great Leader Bush was the self-professed "Decider." Dick Cheney was the snarling beast who would destroy anyone who was in the way. and it wasn't just Fox News - though they were the loudest and most strident - who would shut down dissent.
It's hard to capture the feeling those days now. One incredulity led to another. America was a North Korea-like one party state. Quivering Democrats were fighting each other to be the first vote for the AUMF and soon the Iraq War. They killed thousands of us and we killed hundreds of thousands of them (and counting) on a lie told by a cabal of demagogues.
And outside the party, all we had was Jon.
Any voice questioning or criticising was shut down. It was either stomped out by the Fox jackboots or was simply not allowed to be aired. Except for Jon.
Throughout those dark days, there was one place to go for truth. When every government statement was a deliberate lie and every reporter a stenographer, Stewart was the only truth-teller. And that took something that did not exist - and is still missing - in the media:
Courage.
Jon didn't give us the Progressive line as many wanted to do or accused him of doing. He told the truth - and made it funny. As he says to the Guardian: “I live in a constant state of depression. I think of us as turd miners. I put on my helmet, I go and mine turds, hopefully I don’t get turd lung disease.”
He wasn't mining for stories to fit a preconceived narrative, like Fox. And he didn't just make shit up to fit a worldview, like Fox. Because the American right has become so cartoonish, has embraced willful ignorance and unbridled military violence as mundane approaches to all questions, the act of speaking the truth itself became an act of rebellion.
For a long time we had one rebel: Jon. And he took the toughest assignments, unflinchingly, willingly. He repeatedly took on the loudest bully on Fox - Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly actually had a body language expert come on his show after Stewart to analyse Stewart - clearly hoping to show that Jon had been intimidated. The result? Jon was trying to intimidate O'Reilly.
He WANTED Rumsfeld. He wanted the odious Dick Cheney to come to his show and be shown as what they were: cowards and bullies. He didn't get them all, but he was pretty damn close.
To do that, you need a fire in your belly, and that's hard to sustain after a decade. For Jon, he's calling it after 16 years. For whatever he was or was not, he was honest and he was courageous at a time when it was dangerous to be either. Oh, and he was damn funny, too.
posted by fiduciary at 3:59 PM
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