As you may remember, Jon Stewart is still on my Sh-t List. He’s been on my list since the election, when he tried to defend Trump voters by saying that they were good people and they weren’t racist, and blah blah false equivalency this and the system is corrupted, etc. Then two weeks into Easy D’s administration, suddenly Stewart was SHOCKED that Donald Trump pursued wildly racist and unconstitutional policies and wow, who could have predicted that Trump would behave like an orange madman? Oh, right. Most of us.
Anyway, Jon Stewart appeared on Monday night’s Late Show with his friend Stephen Colbert. Colbert is really leaning into political humor and topical humor these days, trying to reconnect with his Colbert Report mojo (which is another story altogether). Personally, I would prefer if Colbert just unloaded on Trump himself without inviting Jon Stewart on to do the dirty work, but as I said, that’s another story altogether. The point of Jon’s visit was to hold the media to account, after Trump called the media the “enemy of the American people” and Trump canceled on the White House Correspondents’ dinner. Trump is actively at war with the media and the First Amendment, which AGAIN is not shocking in the least. So Jon wanted to give the media some advice:
“I mean, this whole thing just makes me so crazy!” Stewart exclaimed. “Trump lies more in one press conference than CNN does in a year, and that’s coming from a guy who, as you know, hates CNN.” Stewart proceeded to dismantle Trump’s lies about the size of his electoral college win, the country’s murder rate, and perhaps most disturbingly, his dismissal of concerns over anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish centers. Instead of condemning those incidents, Trump simply declared himself “the least anti-Semitic person you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”
“I don’t think that’s true!” Stewart declared. “He said that to a guy wearing a yarmulke. Donald, you’re not even the least anti-Semitic person in that clip we showed.” But how does Stewart know Trump’s lying deliberately? “Because he constantly says the phrase ‘believe me.’ Nobody says ‘believe me’ unless they’re lying.”
But Stewart had just as strong a statement for the members of the press who are calling Trump’s attacks “un-American,” telling them to “stop your whining.” Speaking directly to the media, Stewart said, “I heard Donald Trump broke up with you. Stings a little, doesn’t it? You finally thought you’d met your match: a blabbermouth who’s as thin-skinned and narcissistic as you are. Well, now it’s over! Well, good riddance, I say. Kick. Him. To. The. Curb.”
He said it’s time for the media to “get its groove back” after “letting itself go,” “putting on a few pundits” over the years and “obsessing 24 hours a day over this one guy”: Donald Trump. “And the whole time you’re all chasing after Donny, the rest of us are thinking, ‘But can’t you see he’s an a–hole?’ You try to defend him. ‘Oh, no, no, that’s just primaries Donald. That’s just election Donald. You’ll see. We can change him! He’ll get presidential!’ Yeah, how’d that work out? It didn’t. You know why? Because 70-year-old men don’t get less cranky or racist as time goes by. Look, media, I’m not saying the breakup is going to be easy. You’re going to see your ex swiping far-right with every Tom, Drudge, and Breitbart…But here’s my point, media. This breakup has given you an amazing opportunity for self-reflection and improvement. Instead of worrying about whether Trump is un-American or if he thinks you’re the enemy or if he’s being mean to you or if he’s going to let you back in the briefings, do something for yourself. Take up a hobby. I recommend journalism.”
“I think this breakup is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you,” Stewart concluded.
Colbert asked Stewart, “You really think the media is going to take this opportunity to self-examine and then get better at their jobs?”“I really do,” he replied. “Believe me.”
Sigh… here’s the thing: Jon Stewart underestimated Donald Trump too, just as Stewart underestimated Trump’s voters and supporters. Stewart telling the media to breakup with Trump seems a bit rich, given his previous statements. As for the crux of what Stewart says, some in the media have been on-point this whole time, and some haven’t. While I agree that every media outlet could do better and that we need a larger plan of how to cover and discuss Trump, his people and his politics, many journalists have been doing great work for years now.
Now all that being said, Stewart isn’t all wrong here – Trump’s war with the media is a Steve Bannon-led strategy which is part of a larger war that these motherf–kers are planning. The “war with the media” is sideshow to Trump’s larger issues.
Photos courtesy of WENN/CBS.
“Now all that being said, Stewart isn’t all wrong here – Trump’s war with the media is a Steve Bannon-led strategy which is part of a larger war that these motherf–kers are planning. The “war with the media” is sideshow to Trump’s larger issues.”
This is what scares me the most =(
Saw this yesterday. The man behind the man behind the curtain: meet Robert Mercer. The Mercer family is awful.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage
Isnt it bizzare how Trump supporters are constantly going on about the 1% agenda and the corporate media while their Emperor is not only a member of that 1% but is crafted by a media man with an agenda who is himself controlled by another one percenter?
Yes, but unlike those lib’rul one percenters, Trump really cares about how his supporters have to repress their racism in a polite society. He can relate to their struggle and is a role model for wearing your hate like a badge of honor.
@Ramona
It’s crazy isn’t it? I don’t know how you could be a person of reason and still be a Trump supporter. There is no logic to any of it.
Yes! Yes! I mentioned Robert Mercer in another comment and it’s weird it’s only gotten attention media now. German press were much quicker and already had a few articles around post Brexit, early trump campaign time about the role Mercer/Cambridge Analytica’s data-mining bots flooded the net which influenced voting. I mean, it’s really eye-opening that billionaire Silicon Valley Mercer is funding the research firm, that spammed the net for Brexit and Trump, while he funded Brietbart and Bannon too.
Anyway, I miss Jon Stewart on the Daily Show but it shows he needed his researchers. He just seems like his resistance is good…finally…but he’s a bit out of touch. Media and Trump is not a ‘break up’ analogy. It’s more like a Greek chorus on the Towring Inferno!
Right?? We quite literally have an administration lined with one percenters!
*bangs head against wall*
That article is scary as hell.
Neelyo – thank you for the article. Scary as hell but essential reading.
Never thought about that, but it does sound right.
“Take up a hobby. I recommend journalism.”
This could be recommended to British ‘journos’ and media fawning over Farage too.
The anti-media narrative is killing me! Farage claims that he is scared of “liberal media” which is … sigh. British media is NOT liberal at all. Not just him too. It seems British media has the capability of create a useless twat out of Jeremy Corbyn. He would be great if it weren’t for the media or so his fans say. Both of them do this. They complain because media reports the shit they said and did.
“Evil MSM” has just become a slogan for failing politicians. That does not mean media doesn’t have problems. Trump and Farage played the media so well. Especially Trump got to reach everybody with his speeches for FREE thanks to CNN etc. During the election, I heard loads of Trump slogans and quotes and heard nothing of Clinton other than #imwithher.
lmao British media, “liberal”? The only liberal national newspapers are the Guardian and the Independent, the Indy only publishes online now and the Guardian seems to be in dire need of subscriber cash.
Tried to watch this bit yesterday, and I couldn’t make it through the whole thing. John Stewart is insufferable to me at this point.
To me, too. I don’t think this bit was worthwile, either.
I see where you’re coming from. He really showed his a** with that commentary on Trump voters. It’s just that my sh*t list is overflowing and he didn’t make the cut. Otherwise, I hear you.
Yeah I’m not there yet but to be fair, I was never a diehard Stewart fan to begin with so I don’t feel all that disappointed.
I’m with Kaiser though that I have really mixed feelings about him.
I’m so down today, you guys. Sigh. I feel a sense of impending doom.
Or they can, Like us, care about multiple, important things at the same time , and what not *shuffles Cancellation forms Over and Over..Im getting tired of this*
Lol I love you.
I am so tired (truly just worn out) with how the major networks (CNN particularly) cannot seem to juggle topics. They are mostly being puppets to the master distractors in the WH.
Oh please. Calling it un-American isn’t wrong, it’s true. And it’s fine for the media to point that out. Just because they’re pointing it out doesn’t mean they aren’t also doing their jobs. Could some do better? I’m sure. But he acts like they’re sitting around all day crying and they’re clearly not. I don’t know what it is, it seems to be a man thing. Like, deep down, some part of them wants Trump to succeed and make excuses for him. The guy I’m dating is very liberal, and he was pissing himself last night going on about how great the speech was and he was worried Trump would change people’s minds. “He’s killing it!” He actually said. I told him it was just his same evil ideologies, just dressed up in coherent sentences, he proceeded to mansplain and I was just like “ugh” and went to bed. White men don’t have as much to lose, period, especially if they’re outside the draft range.
This is the thing. Theres a significant proportion of human beings who crave to be forcefully led. It paradoxically makes them feel safe. Thats what Mussolini and Hitler and Idi Amin and Muamar Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein initially tapped into. ALL these people were extremely popular at some point in their reign precisely because they spoke forcefully and therefore allowed people to shed the “burden of thought”.
You see this with Trump all the time. He’ll say the most illogical thing forcefully and you see half the country (including liberals) going “well, he has a point about X”. The economy for instance. He spent a year telling us we were in trouble when every metric that matters shows that we are growing and the collective accepted that as fact.
Yup. Man, I just wish more people were … smarter? idk, more critical thinkers? 45 is slipping one over on so many people, and we can totally see it. It’s so frustrating.
This is so frighteningly true.
Excellent point! I’ve been genuinely disappointed in so many of my friends and family. Even those who disagree with Trump seem to be largely apathetic and unwilling to speak out. I am a historian by nature and training, so all of this (as you pointed out) is ringing major alarm bells for me. When I try to educate people, their eyes glaze over and I can see them zoning out. “It’s not that serious, it will be fine!” “We have checks and balances; he can’t get away with anything extreme.” Wanna bet?
Sometimes it’s hard for me to separate apathy/complacency from outright participation in a regime that wants to overthrow the tenets of our Constitution for corporate gain.
I have family members like this. I think they like that Tr*mp is getting in there and offending everyone. They have no interest in any community but their own little, insular one. I don’t think they’d care if he made himself king and stayed in office forever, as long as they could get to the next game or hunting trip. Their attitudes have always frightened me and continue to. I moved away many years ago because of this myopia.
“White men don’t have as much to lose, period, especially if they’re outside the draft range.”
This is perfect, and so very true, Shannon.
“Take up a hobby. I recommend journalism.”
A lot of the media/journalists are intolerable, so I appreciate that a lot. I miss you, Jon.
its pretty funny and well-written bit. theres a huge helping of Irony of course.
I can’t watch it until I get home but from the transcript I take away two things.
1) “The media” doesn’t exist. Who is he even talking to? Fox News is doing great (at least from their perspective, no?). But in general, the media isn’t some impartial third party here. They go for readership/clicks/ratings. They’re owned by people with an agenda and that agenda is MONEY. Which comes from aforementioned readership/clicks/ratings. What exactly does he think will make them say “f*ck it” and go for substance over profit?
2) I don’t get why he hates CNN so much. Maybe that’s because I only get CNN International and that’s actually pretty decent. I guess because they lost their sh*t over vanished airplanes and BREAKING NEWS when somewhere a tree fell in the forest? And their election coverage? Nobody looked good on that front. But this goes to my first point. CNN is competing for ratings like everyone else. They have excellent people like Amanpour, Cooper, Tapper etc. Sometimes I look at Anderson Cooper and imagine I can almost taste his frustration with the panel format and certain pundits/guests.
CNN US is really flashy and dumbed down. I think CNN International has to keep up with BBC World and Al Jazeera so they try to treat their audience with respect. The US version is really trying to juxtapose against Fox which is how Piers Morgan ended up getting a show there. Big mouth moron shouts at guests is a distinctly Fox News formula. They also cut programming to bring us breaking news of Justin Bieber peeing in a mop bucket.
Thanks, that’s what I assumed. I understand why that is frustrating then.
Okay Jon, from now on I will make it a point to listen to a comedian tell Americans and journalists how to act. How dare CNN refuse to buckle down and accept the fact the president ridicules them, calls them liars and his continual, redundant war cry of “fake news.” I would like CNN to SCREAM the truth louder, to try to drown out the whining of Fox News and every single trump supporter I hear. Bad hombre, Jon, go back to your safe place of comedy and stop trying to be our dad.
Agree with everything.
I tend to agree with John about Trump voters. It makes no sense to judge everyone under the assumption they have the capacity to understand what you understand. George Carlin summed it up, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” Some people are not bright enough to understand complex thoughts or to judge a guy like Donald accurately. They’ll focus on one thing like lower taxes, good or whatever.
Add that Hillary actually won the white, non-evangelical vote which to me suggests either evangelical Christianity teaches racism (does it?) or their priests (?) preached religion… for a non-politically minded person I could see them just trusting their congregation (or whatever they call themselves).
As for CNN, look at how much time they devoted to covering Trump vs. Hillary. Stewart in the past called them ‘lazy sensationalist’ and I think their obsessive Trump coverage was exactly that. Trump proves ‘no publicity is bad publicity’.
I’m sick of Jon Stewart. He’s smug and irrelevant and finally now in POS territory for me.
Go sell your overrated and pig-ignorant “hot take” to April Ryan and Katy Tur, Jon. I’ll wait.
I’ve lost respect for Stewart. Why is he inserting himself now that it’s too late. Where was he during the election. Yes the media lost its way and that helped Trump win. But obviously he isn’t getting the seriousness of Trump calling the media “the enemy of the people”. There is so much better commentary out there by other comedians. I think he wants to run for office.
Journalists are the guardians of democracy and Trump’s actions against them are seriously disturbing because without them there would be fewer checks against politicians. Flynn wouldn’t have stepped down, the White House wouldn’t have come forward about Russia on its own, etc etc. They ARE doing their job. Tell me, what is Stewart doing??
We have journalists to thank for showing us glimpses of what the government tries to hide. How is Trump getting away with this?
The media is not whining. They’re telling us the news that Trump doesn’t want us to hear. The real “whiner” in this situation is Trump. Whines all day about people he doesn’t like and things he’s lying about.
Sorry Jon, I already broke up with you. Too little, too darn late.
It’s sad isn’t it? I watched the daily show faithfully and stopped when Trevor took use to this day Trevor sounds like he is doing a poor job Stewart impression when he speaks.
So yeah I’m very disappointed in Jon Stewart.
Patiently waiting for the next Woodward and Berstein to emerge from American journalism. A precious few seem to be up to the job. A few seem to be taking the bait, taking pains to seem “fair” at the expense of hard hitting journalism (like Alisyn on CNN this morning).
I think those who are pushing to get the real story among all the distractions need to keep pluggging away. The glam bots and their panel of glittery (seriously what was with the trend of ladies wearing cocktail attire to talk politics??) talking heads can dissect the story after real journalists have broken it.
Farenthold (and Tapper) are going to be the guys that blow this wide open, I’m almost certain of this.
I would add Maddow, who is trying to show connections to a Russian oligarch who bought orange’s mansion a few years ago.
I never liked this self-hating tool. He’s just mad that he’s not the center of attention like he was in the Bush years.
To be honest, most of the US media has been heavily about propaganda and selling their own agenda for a long time, instead of caring about keeping the public informed objectively about what’s going on. There are really few outlets that can be considered really trustworthy, it’s incredibly appalling how the media works there compared to other countries. They also apparently haven’t learned anything from what’s going on now, which makes me question if any of them actually studied communications. The insane coverage they do to every little thing Trump and his people do, including things that have nothing to do with running a country like who sat how where, only make Trump bigger. The only people that’s going to be outraged are the ones that already hate Trump, you think that his supporters are going to care about those things? The best they could do is ignore all his bullshit and instead start reporting on other things that are happening and that they are ignoring because it’s not click baity enough.
So I’m not saying I fully agree with Stewart, but I do think media needs to start doing real journalism and not just propaganda. Especially when every article seems like they’re utterly shocked about what’s going on when really it was all talked about in his campaign.
Jon Stewart literally said a full-court press by the media on Trump’s BS would not accomplish anything but now suddenly he’s chastising the media? Give me a break, bruh.