Friday, August 11, 2006

What have you got for an opening act this time? A Chinese gorilla dancing ballet?

When the great photographer Ansel Adams interviewed Ronald Reagan during the halycon of the future President's days as a spokesman for G.E. the photographer referred to Reagan as "opaque." No light penetrates. A condition prevalent to most of those of Reagan's political persuasion I might add.

This open letter to Jon Stewart demonstrates once again how those on the political Right live a life of irony-deficiency. They're simply incapable of noticing the absurdity in advocating two (or more) counter positions at the same time.

In this case Justin Hartfield of the Prometheus Institute (Objectivists?) is simultaneously saying that he admired Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire in which he berated host Tucker Carlson while taking up Tucker's biggest charge during that program that Stewart wasn't serious enough in his interviews and demeanor.

I understand your show is in the business of entertainment and its focus is on humor, but isn’t it at least a small bit reckless to criticize so fervently yet offer no viable solutions yourself?
Stewart's response when Tucker tried the same line was that the show leading into his was "puppets making prank calls."

I was going to post the entire Crossfire segment which is available at You Tube but came across this speech by Stewart which he made on the first episode of the Daily Show following the 9/11 attacks. I think Stewart does a far better job of defending his program and talking about why his job as the heckler is so important in a free society than anything he said on Crossfire.

As for Hartfields complaint that Stewart needs to attack targets from all sides of the political spectrum and not just Republicans I think it's pretty clear to anyone that watches the show that they don't pull any punches when it comes to Democrats. It's just that when you're the kid in the back of the class shooting spitballs, as Stewart talked about in the post-9/11 show opener, you shoot those spitballs at the teacher.

4 comments:

Don Snabulus said...

I wish for a lot of things too. I wish Fox and CNN would have a range of opinion shows rather than just hard-right batshit-crazy conservative. I wish Rush and David Limbaugh wouldn't destroy the Limbaugh name with their shitty lifestyles and constant lies.

However, nobody in their right mind would print these wishes because who cares what I wish for? Nobody, especially not Jon Stewart, should give this guy's drivel another thought.

Stunning speech from Jon by the way. Spot on.

Dean Wormer said...

Wonderful Don.

Yes, the Limbaugh name has been besmirched. On top of David and Rush there's some two-bit ham of an actor in L.A. that shares the name and has done nothing but stumble through performances on That 70's Show and Rolling Rock commercials.

That actor must be stopped!

Anonymous said...

You have been added to my red list.

Don Snabulus said...

How'd you like a little chin music, mister?