John Stewart on Crossfire

[mburbank]

Stewart was on crossfire this last friday and caught them quite off guard by being serious. It got nowhere in that neither host was capable of seeing his point, but that in itself gived you a window into how fucked up these people (right and left) are. You can watch it at

http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2652831&htv=12&htv=12&htv=12

It's got some amazing moments and is well worth seeing.

[Emu]

Stewart's really getting popular. People don't give him enough credit. I suppose that has something to do with being on Comedy Central. :/

[FS]

He frustrates the hell out of bowtie-man. :)

[Emu]

He seems like he would be the liberal. Something about bowties.

[ranxer]

haha, thanks for the link.. i was miffed that i missed it.

nice mockery of cnn =)

[FartinMowler]

He came off as being a jerk :/ If someone invites you to there show atleast you can be polite. I don't think he said anything of any value.

[Emu]

Well, the point of the show is to bitch and moan at eachother, which Stewart did in the usual flavor of the show.

[FS]

It was pretty clear that they knew Jon's feelings on Crossfire when they invited him. If he'd just started playing nice all of a sudden he would've been a damned hypocrite.

He held up well, but near the end he seemed to get pissed underneath his calm stick-in-the-mud demeanor when he called Fabulous Bowtie a dick. :lol

[mburbank]

I don't think so at all. I think he had every right (and I think he is right) to accuse both hosts of being political hacks.

That's fine and good, but don't pretend to be honest debate, or information. Did you see the moment when both of them pretended to be unfamilliar with the term 'spin alley'? They aren't journalists, they're political activists. They don't hold anyones feet to the fire they function as surrogates in a slap fest.

It's like FOX calling itself 'fair and balanced' or O'reilly saying his show is the 'no spin zone'. It shouldn't be alllowed to go unchallenged. Whats the matter, these 'tough question' guys can't cope with being questioned?

You can dress a turn in a prom gown, you can take it to the prom, but it isn't going to dance.

[El Blanco]

As far left as I think the Daily Show has been leaning, I still love Stewart, and this merely reaffirmed that.

I totally agree with what he was saying about political debate shows. Its not about find ing a solution, its about showing up the other team. Its all cheerleading.

And yes, even though he didn't ask Kerry any real hard questions, ITS STILL A COMEDY SHOW! Its no issue if he decides to throw some softball questions to the guy he wants to win. Crossfire should be holding themselves to a higher standard.

And I want a TV show. If nothing else, than to prove it actually is possible to have a conservative point of view and a sense of humor.

[Crying Baby Jesus]

I miss 5 Questions :(

[Perndog]

Silly man. You'd think he would have prepared himself to speak articulately without stumbling over himself constantly and letting the hosts get him pissed off. It's their show. Did he expect them to play nicer?

[Preechr]

I don't see Stewart as a guy that's very comfortable or familiar with confrontation. Maybe he had a point he felt was valid, but wasn't prepared as well as they were to slap somebody upside the head with a contrary opinion...

[Perndog]

If he can't handle confrontation he's better off getting his points across somewhere other than a show that's about confrontation hosted by the people that he's attacking.

[Miss Modular]

That was great. I :love Jon.

It's just too bad Robert Novak wasn't on the show. Not that Tucker Carlson isn't enough of a douchebag of Liberty.

With that being said, I find Paul Begala pretty rude, too.

[mburbank]

I thought he made his point. I thought he gave them rope and then they both hung themselves.

"Spin... al-lee? What earth man mean by this... spin... al-lee?"

If either of them had said "Yeah, you know, what your saying is true, but that's what we have to do to counter the other side, and this is what television is, it IS theater, you of all people should know that."

Then maybe they'd have had a conversation about the role of the press.

But they are too tied up in bullshit to even recognize the issue.

"What? Pro wrestling? I don't see the analogy."

And them trying to say "the daily show" is no better! First of all, it IS better at getting to certain truths than they are, and second, the daily show doesn't make any claim to being anything beyond funny.

They might as well be saying "Well, don't get so mad, we're a comedy show too!" which is closer to the truth than anything ever said on Crossfire.

Plus, mad as he might have been (if he was) I thought Stewart managed to be funny as well, and if I may pull rank, as someone who's actually been on stage a few hundred times, I promise you, he did damn well. He made a point, he thwarted their expectations, and by thwarting their expectations he underlined his point.

The so called 'news' media has utterly abandoned it's post, much as congress has. It isn't the frist time, it sure won't be the last, but it's sad news a comedian is the only one in any position to say so.

[Perndog]

One hundred, a few hundred...yeah, I don't have your experience, Max, but I do perform for a living. He could have handled himself better.

Of course, I think the appearance was ineffective as a political statement no matter what. The only people who took Crossfire seriously to begin with are the sort who aren't about to be turned around or enlightened by anything short of the Hand of God smacking them upside the heads.

This appearance provided entertainment. We know he made the hosts incredibly uncomfortable on national TV. I think he made a fool of himself in the meantime. Crossfire fans think the hosts smacked him down.

Everyone wins. But the score is the same as it was before this round started.

[Ant10708]

I thought Stewart did a good job making the hosts look like idiots.

[El Blanco]

Stewart wasn't stumbling. That was just his method of delivery. Its like the middle ground between Kevin Neelan's Subliminal Man and Norm MacDonald anchoring Weekend Update. He came off pretty good (although I'm probably biased in that thats the most time I've ever spent watching Crossfire).

I got his point about the media not raking the candidates over the coals enough. I don't mean to intentionally entrap them to make them look bad, but to come in with the important questions and force the politicians to answer.

[Perndog]

I'm sorry, I must have been confusing weak delivery with a cultivated style of weak-sounding delivery. He sure doesn't sound like that on the Daily Show. And to be certain, most of the right words came out eventually, but if he is *intentionally* including all that verbal garbage - "I, uh, buh, I'm trying, I'm trying to say, I'm trying to say that..." I still can't give him credit for sounding any good doing it.

[El Blanco]

Oh, that. Let's see you make your point on the first try with two people hollering at you.

Performance is a little easier when its scripted.

[Preechr]

YEAH, JUST ASK THE PRESIDENT!!

HE KNOWS!!

[Anonymous]

I keep getting 'the item you selected is not available for [any player you try]'

[ScruU2wice]

I couldn't get it to work so I just googled it and picked one that wouldn't crash my browser.

It seemed like all the stumbling was Jon's style. I mean it's not as smooth as when he's got his monologue thing going but like when he's asking guests questions. It seemed pretty convincing to me. meh.

[Anonymous]

Yep, just found a bittorrent at http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/15/jon_stewarts_crossfi.html and even got 400 k/s download rate.

Gonna go check dis out NOWS :o

[Brandon]

I'm just glad somebody finally told Carlson and Begala -- on air and to their faces -- that their show is truly godawful. It was a long time coming.

[Anonymous]

Haha.

It just seemed like what he said - he wanted to come on their show and tell them that it sucked and was part of the problem with the media. Afterwards he kinda got disinterested in participating.

[Anonymous]

Sorry about all the double-posting, y'alls.

I remember an old dilbert strip making fun of Crossfire, too, where dogbert prepares ratbert for the show by beating him senseless with a newspaper. That's about the extent of my experience with the program.

[Ricky Glue]

This truly made me believe and reaffirm the fact that I'm voting Stewart/Foley in 2008!

[mburbank]

Pern; your points about the score not changing and crossfire fans not getting any slap that didn't come from the hand of God are both well taken.

But, humor is subjective, and I thought he was effective and funny.

I never really thought of it in terms of it mattering. I just enjoyed it and thought he did a good job. I can't imagine anything happening on Crossfire short of murder or nudity that would change anything.

[ziggytrix]

He went on their show and made a joke out of it. Clearly, Stewart won.

[Zebra 3]

And I want a TV show. If nothing else, than to prove it actually is possible to have a conservative point of view and a sense of humor.
:( - Conservatives are not funny.

[kellychaos]

Two points:

Point One: As Stewart lampoons the media on his show, I believe it would be disengenuous and the height of hypocrisy for him to come onto a show such as Crossfire and suck up to the hosts. He wasn't changing colors, really. He was just being honest to the theme of his show and the hosts of Crossfire didn't expect that. Boo freakin' hoo!

Point Two: I thought that it was unfair for the hosts to infer that Stewart was soft balling his guest when they do the same thing. If the prospective guests thought that they were going to be evicerated on the air, they would never agree to appear on ANY show. What they want is exposure and they want exposure in the best possible light on ANY show ... and ... NO GUEST, NO SHOW. That being said, I thought that it was unfair for Stewart to hold Crossfire up to a higher code of integrity than he does on his own show. If they attacked every guest in the way that Stewart suggests, then they'd never have another guest and wouldn't be able to stay in business. It's a comprimise that will always exist if you expect to have high-caliber guests on your show ... no getting around it, really.

[mburbank]

PJ Ororke is funny.

And while he often sacrafices humor to party loyalty, I have seen Bob Dole be funny, and the same can be said of Alan Simpson.

On the whole though, conservatives seem to be more loathe to make fun of themselves and more commited to agenda over humor. Witness what's become of Dennis Miller, who before becoming determindly right wing was often funny and now... well, isn't.

Liberals had no fun of making fun of Clinton for having his weiner waxed. Conservatives are frightened of mking fun of W for at very least appearing to be stupid.