On Monday, Jon Stewart interviewed Senator Rick Santorum. I didn't watch it because I had no interest in listening to an idiotic homophobe like Rick Santorum, but a lot of people are up in arms, claiming that Jon "softballed" the interview and didn't go after Rick enough.
Dudes, chill! Jon can't do everything! He tries to have a civilized conversation with his guests and, as some voices of reason have pointed out, he can't chew out every public figure he disagrees with or he'll only be able to get mindless celebrities and ideological cohorts of his to come on the show and that wouldn't be so good. Yeah, he called Tucker Carlson a dick, but that doesn't mean he should do it every night; at that point, he'd degenerate into nothing more than another smug, not-funny liberal "comic" (we already have Al Franken and Janeane Garofolo, and that's more than enough). Yet some people seem to feel downright betrayed, saying he's "too nice" and "too liberal" (i.e. trying to be nice to everyone and reasonable and openminded, a position that just makes my mind boggle) and that he "sold out" gay people or something.
Guys, I love Jon Stewart. I adore The Daily Show. But I think some have put far too many expectations on it. It's only one show and can only do so much. If you want more public evisceration of the right, try building a Democratic Party with a backbone and an original thought, okay? The Daily Show cannot be the entirety of the liberal/progressive movement and it shouldn't have to try to be.
Update: Apparently, by missing the first ten seconds or so of yesterday's The Daily Show, as I did, I missed Jon's witty and charming acknowledgement of the controversy over his Santorum interview. Now, everyone's back on the bandwagon. God, people are fickle!
2 comments:
Ugh! I love The Daily Show, too, but I always want to scream at people, "IT ISN'T REALLY THE NEWS!"
It's not Jon Stewart's job to play "hard" or "soft" ball with his guests. It's his fucking job to entertain us. Chill, people. All right? lol ...
I haven't been over to Towleroad (AKA towelrod.) since that whole "gay boys in thongs hurt THE cause" BS. Now it seems I made the right choice. Jon bashing is so not cool, man.
:)
I love Jon (and the Daily Show) as much as anyone, and while I really would have liked to watch him take Rick Santorum apart, I know where the fault really lies. You see, I live in Pennsylvania (although thankfully not in his district!) and I live cheek-by-jowl with the kind of people who keep right on re-electing him.... They're not really BAD people, just dedicatedly ignorant. THAT is what the Democratic party needs to change: they can't make people like my family, friends, and neighbors any less ignorant, but they really could re-assume their stance as the party of the working class....
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