Jon Stewart is my new hero

[Taskmage]

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly Talk It Out, Part 2 | Indecision Forever | Political Humor and Satire Blog | 2012 Election | Comedy Central

Not because he clearly emerged the victor with respect to Common, which is almost irrelevant (O'Reilly would probably never recognize that ever to himself, so what does it matter?) but because refused to be provoked, refused to raise his voice or disrespect O'Reilly and continued to argue cogently in the face of O'Reilly's persistent rudeness and stupidity. It takes a really big man to treat one's opponent as an intellectual equal when they try so hard to prove otherwise.

[Gobo]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

My Alma mater has him coming in for a few shows next year. He is refusing to charge a lot for the tickets. I think my dad said the student tickets are 15-20 a pop (I think orchestra is 25). For reference Robin Williams was 90 minimum for student tickets.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

Actually thought Stewart faltered in the second part of the interview, but c'mon, any comedian that appears on O'Reilly is going to end up looking smarter. Bill should have admitted he was picking the wrong fight in the first segment, but Stewart did keep falling back on the "I don't know/I can't speak for Common" bit a lot. You can only say that so much.

I prefer Stewart when he's more like this, though. He was a bit hard to take seriously a couple years back when the hard-on for Obama was readily apparent, but he's clearly over that now. Common was a non-issue, should be treated as such by either sides of the political spectrum but O'Reilly loves to press the non-issues and fight pointless battles.

The Rev. Wright and Bill Aires(?) stuff is known, they are indeed questionable associations, but also very, very old hat as far as Obama controversies go. Common doesn't even really fit the extreme those two lived in, nor does he reach the same level of influence on Obama, so O'Rielly elevating Common to their level is just ridiculous.

But O'Rielly is just ridiculous on a lot of levels. Obama probably invited Common because he thought "This guy is probably cool with the kids today, right?" and didn't know him from Adam beforehand. Or he just had some pictures on a dartboard and did a blind throw.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

Why is it I can only get my fix of civil political discourse from NPR and comedians? WHY!?

[Taskmage]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

NPR and comedians

Two sources commonly cited as having a liberal bias. I'm in the same boat though. I really wish I could see more like the above--people with disparate opinions exploring eachother's viewpoints through reasonable discussion, but content like that doesn't drive up the ratings. Given that, I have to give O'Reilly a little credit for setting this up and airing it.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

I am now going to interpret "liberal" as meaning "someone who doesn't shout at people with different opinions".

[Taskmage]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

There's a strong correlation in the media right now. Alan Colmes can be a total douchebag, and Ron Paul is a very level-headed guy, so there is some crossover.

---------- Post added at 03:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:00 PM ----------

Actually, I think the current slightly-invective term for people on the political left is "progressive" now. It's ironic because it sounds like their opponents would be people who oppose progress, which is exactly how they're caricatured. So both sides end up looking bad, but still they use the term. Go political media.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

There's a strong correlation in the media right now..

Whether its Fox, talk radio, NPR, MSNBC or the AP newswire bias from either side is pretty hard to miss. There is editorial in news where it doesn't belong and both sides are eager to publicize their own idealogical victories while completely ignoring the other side's victories.

I mean, you look at the last election and, yeah, lots of Republicans won in the House - that's kind of hard to ignore. But what's omitted is that the same thing happened in many state houses as well, which is something we've not seen in like 60 years in some states. No one talks about that unless you're just listening to the local news.

To NPR and MSNBC, such facts do not exist. I just tell people political power is like a pendulum, which it pretty much is, but it never ceases to amaze me how few people believe that.

CNN I don't know if I'd call the middle of the road, its just more to the end they've been around so long and not be terribly sensationalist that they're kind of painted into a corner.

Still, when some celebrity falls from grace, exect to hear little else but that from CNN for weeks or months because they want ratings to. I think some places still haven't let Tiger Woods live anything down yet.

[Taskmage]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

I wasn't talking about the editorializing so much as the proclivity to shouting down opposing opinions. That tendency is strongest on the political right for now.

I usually think NPR presents a pretty balanced treatment of the news. There's no denying there are individuals in the power structure that lean in one direction, but a strong bias isn't obvious to me in what they broadcast. Maybe I just don't notice because I'm so used to putting a salty glaze on everything I hear.

Can't speak to CNN or MSNBC in general, but I will say I'm developing a man crush on Anderson Cooper.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

I usually think NPR presents a pretty balanced treatment of the news. There's no denying there are individuals in the power structure that lean in one direction, but a strong bias isn't obvious to me in what they broadcast. Maybe I just don't notice because I'm so used to putting a salty glaze on everything I hear.

Nah, you're not off base there. NPR has some bias, as will any media outlet, but it's so mild and understated that it may as well not be there. It's the only media outlet I've ever encountered where a moderator actually stepped in to basically tell one guest to stop shouting down the other guest so they could actually have a civil conversation.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

I wasn't talking about the editorializing so much as the proclivity to shouting down opposing opinions. That tendency is strongest on the political right for now.

Eh, seems either way to me on the shouting. I get to a point where I get fed up with both sides. I'd say I'm center-right more than anything else. I prefer Dennis Miller's radio show as he talks about other things people might enjoy like sports and movies, interview actors, musicians and senators and wax about various pop culture things.

I think he just appears on O'Rielly to look smarter than O'Rielly. His political leanings have slightly changed but his humor and delivery is pretty much what it always was.

And when he's sparring its pretty much like that interview above. I've seen him talk to Bill Mahar and Stewart, they're all pals anyway, but the discussions are thoughtful.

I think its because for them to entertain they do have to look at both sides of anything and be honest. Writing humor is a lot about taking one idea, deconstructing it and reconstructing it until they're confident it can reach everyone. The risk becomes when you become entrenched on one side.

Kinda why I always liked George Carlin. He had no loyalties. He was an athiest, but didn't really beat people over the head with him being that. He had his opinions on religion, but presented it in a way that still would make anyone laugh and didn't fall into a broken record. Eddie Izzard is that way, too, come to think of it.

They go "Here's what I believe, but let's make it funny."

I think what inflames the right is some liberals have this tendency to talk about "civility" one second and the next moment they're calling people nazis or saying republicans want your grandmother to die, which is interesting for people that want civility. Sadly, civility is not a one-way street and if you're going to name-call and fear-monger in the name of being "civil" you've pretty much given the other side license to start yelling.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

Sadly, civility is not a one-way street and if you're going to name-call and fear-monger in the name of being "civil" you've pretty much given the other side license to start yelling.

Indeed.

[Malacite]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

Not because he clearly emerged the victor with respect to Common, which is almost irrelevant (O'Reilly would probably never recognize that ever to himself, so what does it matter?) but because refused to be provoked, refused to raise his voice or disrespect O'Reilly and continued to argue cogently in the face of O'Reilly's persistent rudeness and stupidity. It takes a really big man to treat one's opponent as an intellectual equal when they try so hard to prove otherwise.

Especially when said opponent is clearly a moron. I mean good Lord how did he even break into journalism without knowing some of the stuff Jon was referring?!


I've only got my highschool, but i pretty well got everything Jon said. Never actually heard the term "analogous" used before but it took like half a second to infer what it means... Maybe Bill's just too old? I don't know, but that was one embarrassing interview for him IMO.

I mean hell, did you notice how often the off-camera staff was laughing whenever Jon took shots back and made Bill look like the twat that he is?

[Taskmage]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

I had never heard the word "pettifog," myself.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Jon Stewart is my new hero

You're a very angry person aren't you Mal?