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Jon Stewart Knocks It Out of the Park


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1 hour ago, aggie08 said:

thusly inadvertently lit the WhatTheBuck bat signal. You might as well say that George W. Bush seems like a decent man while you're at it.

Now work in a Taylor Swift is comely somehow...

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2 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

So IMO the biggest void in the media world is a personality that has a consensus reputation among the population as an “honest broker.”  We do not have a perceived Walter Cronkite as our boomer ancestors did.  John Stewart is no Cronkite but if he’s attempting to fill that void, I salute him. 

I thought he was trying to tell jokes.

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2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

I thought he was trying to tell jokes.

I remember seeing a stat years ago, that a lot of young people look to Stewart as their news source.  When I heard he was returning I immediately thought that he felt like he needed to try to make a difference in this election, and that is why he came out of retirement. 

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8 minutes ago, Zonahorn said:

Hopefully Trump’s mental errors get brought up now.

The major media outlets I most frequent (NPR, NYTimes, PBS) all hit hard yesterday on the crazy shit Trump has said recently, including his mental flubs.

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That's pretty much how I saw it too.  These are our 2 choices.  Is it optimal that they're both old as fuck? No, but we don't need 20 minutes on why Joe probably shouldn't be running again.  All Trumpers are going to show up and vote for Trump.  We don't need folks on "our side" giving anyone a reason to sit this one out.

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4 hours ago, bolverk said:

The major media outlets I most frequent (NPR, NYTimes, PBS) all hit hard yesterday on the crazy shit Trump has said recently, including his mental flubs.

4 hours ago, Zonahorn said:

Finally

The NATO stuff really shook up a lot of people and couldn’t be ignored

Reagan: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall”

Trump: “Putin is a wonderful man, he should just take over Europe.  Maybe we can help him somehow.”

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5 hours ago, Red Five said:

I just can't take any more of the "Are these two old guys really the best we can do?" shit, even coming out of Jon Stewart. 

Like if the two finalists for Texas football coach were, say, Pete Carroll, and Jerry Sandusky. "Man, those are our choices? A couple of old dudes..."

 

IMG_0896.jpeg

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7 hours ago, Red Five said:

I just can't take any more of the "Are these two old guys really the best we can do?" shit, even coming out of Jon Stewart. 

Like if the two finalists for Texas football coach were, say, Pete Carroll, and Jerry Sandusky. "Man, those are our choices? A couple of old dudes..."

Let the man work, he can't come out there and start praising Biden's numerous accomplishments despite his memory issues. He has to appear independent to set his audience and gain trust for a few weeks/months to bring in the "undecideds" and "libertarians." After he has them where he wants, then he will start shining a spotlight on Trump's stupidity every week and contrasting it with Biden's record. 

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jon-stewart-biden-criticizing-white-house-1235824591/

Quote

With his very first episode back, Jon Stewart has successfully returned The Daily Show to the cultural conversation — by drawing fire from Democrats.

Stewart’s return to Daily Show hosting duties Monday night opened with a 20-minute monologue going after Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Stewart especially mocked the current president after his disastrous press conference last week where Biden struggled to assure Americans that he was still cognitively capable of performing his duties.

Stewart seemed wholly aware his comments would lead to some left-side backlash, with correspondent Jordan Klepper asking Stewart on-air afterwards, “Did you save democracy yet with your ’90s brand of snark and both-siderism?”

And that’s precisely the sort of blowback that happened, with everyone from progressives to Elon Musk to the White House weighing in.

Podcast host Michael J. Elston tweeted, “If you’re a Democrat with high hopes about the return of Jon Stewart, save your excitement. The first half of his return was both-sides-ing the age issue. I bailed when we got to the guest who believes Biden should not have run for a 2nd term. Jon Stewart is not your friend.”

Chis D. Jackson, an election commissioner in Tennessee, tweeted, “Wow. So you basically say because Biden is old, he is basically as bad as Trump. Why th[e] F do we never learn in this country? Sorry, but I won’t be watching you either.”

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann tweeted, “Well after nine years away, there’s nothing else to say to the bothsidesist fraud Jon Stewart bashing Biden, except: Please make it another nine years.”

A self-described Democratic activist tweeted, “Jon Stewart retired and came back as Bill Maher. I had a Jon Stewart for President shirt and rarely missed a show. So disappointing.” (And, yes, apparently Stewart being on Apple TV+ for his recent show The Problem is basically like being retired).

Another Biden supporter wrote, “President Biden honored Jon Stewart for his work on the PACT Act at the bill signing ceremony, calling for a standing ovation. The Daily Show this is how you pay him back? What a cheap shot. I’ll never forgive you.”

While some Republicans gloated a bit, with Texas congressman Wesley Hunt tweeting, “You know you’re in trouble when you’re a Democrat President and Jon Stewart turns on you.”

And Musk wrote, “balance and humor return!”

The White House was even asked to weigh in during Tuesday’s press briefing, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre being asked about Stewart’s criticism and whether they thought the press conference was, in retrospect, a good idea. During her remarks, Jean-Pierre revealed what many suspected — the press conference was entirely Biden’s idea.

“We believe that it was important for the for the American people to hear directly from this president in a very forceful way about what we thought about the special counsel report,” Jean-Pierre said (quote edited for clarity and brevity). “And not only that, but he took your questions, he stood there and took questions from all of you. We believe that’s important to do … and let’s not forget, the report said the case is closed. There’s nothing to prosecute. But also, the president is going to stand and defend himself. The way that report was characterized — it was not not just me saying this, but legal experts on both sides saying it — it was flatly wrong. It was gratuitous and it was inappropriate. And so the president’s going to defend himself. We believe he believe he did the right thing.”

During his monologue, Stewart had lamented about Biden and Trump, “These two candidates, they are both similarly challenged. And it is not crazy to think that the oldest people in the history of the country to ever run for president might have some of these challenges … We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive or even capable. But they’re both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world. What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones, as voters, who must silence concerns and criticisms. It is the candidates’ job to assuage concerns, not the voters’ job not to mention [them] … Look, Joe Biden isn’t Donald Trump. He hasn’t been indicted as many times, hasn’t had as many fraudulent businesses or been convicted in a civil trial for sexual assault or been ordered to pay defamation charges or stiffed blue collar tradesmen….. The stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny. It actually makes him more subject to scrutiny. If the barbarians are at the gate, you want Conan standing on the ramparts, not chocolate chip cookie guy.”

In any case, Stewart’s return delivered big ratings for Comedy Central. The Daily Show viewership shot up to 1.85 million viewers, the biggest audience for the show in nearly six years.

 

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9 minutes ago, C-Man said:

What, did they expect him to just jeer Trump and cheer Biden for 20 minutes?  This is an issue that's engendering a LOT of discussion, and is a separate conversation from the embrace of demagoguery and overall enshittening that a second Trump term would represent, which is the primary reason to vote for Biden.   I hope America makes the correct (D) choice for democracy, but I do worry about where Biden will be in 2-3 years (and even moreso about Trump).  None of this is ideal - and just expecting people to pretend like it's not an issue (and get mad when they do) is weird.

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I certainly didn't expect him to never jab at Biden, but Stewart's caricature wasn't even based in the reality of Biden's age. He was acting like someone with advanced dementia. It was gratuitous, and maybe if the SC report hadn't come out earlier it wouldn't have bothered me so much. 

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On 2/13/2024 at 1:26 PM, Red Five said:

I just can't take any more of the "Are these two old guys really the best we can do?" shit, even coming out of Jon Stewart. 

Like if the two finalists for Texas football coach were, say, Pete Carroll, and Jerry Sandusky. "Man, those are our choices? A couple of old dudes..."

 

On 2/13/2024 at 1:37 PM, 4th&Five said:

That's pretty much how I saw it too.  These are our 2 choices.  Is it optimal that they're both old as fuck? No, but we don't need 20 minutes on why Joe probably shouldn't be running again.  All Trumpers are going to show up and vote for Trump.  We don't need folks on "our side" giving anyone a reason to sit this one out.

 

1 hour ago, safe sex said:

I certainly didn't expect him to never jab at Biden, but Stewart's caricature wasn't even based in the reality of Biden's age. He was acting like someone with advanced dementia. It was gratuitous, and maybe if the SC report hadn't come out earlier it wouldn't have bothered me so much. 

Guys, it's a comedy show with an audience that skews younger, better informed, and more liberal than cable news. It's going to be okay, and it was funny. Also a big part of the bit was pointing out Biden gave these answers under deposition and comparing them to even more ridiculous memory lapses from the Trumps in the same situation.

Touch some grass.

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I thought it was fucking great.  It reminded me of when I first started watching in the late 90s when shit was halfway sane.  I thought he used Biden's age to point out some obvious shit about the dotard that the average person needs to see.  Stewart has always made fun of the absurdity of it all, which he still does masterfully.  Make no mistake, he knows how important it is for Biden to win.  That said, I think his style might actually sway some casual viewers to vote or at least care, who otherwise might not.  It certainly won't make anyone vote R instead of D, if that's what the consternation is.

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On 2/13/2024 at 11:19 AM, aggie08 said:

You fool, do you realize what you've done?? You've complimented Trevor Noah and thusly inadvertently lit the WhatTheBuck bat signal. You might as well say that George W. Bush seems like a decent man while you're at it.

Obsession noted. 

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On 2/14/2024 at 2:55 PM, gmr548 said:

Guys, it's a comedy show with an audience that skews younger, better informed, and more liberal than cable news. It's going to be okay, and it was funny. Also a big part of the bit was pointing out Biden gave these answers under deposition and comparing them to even more ridiculous memory lapses from the Trumps in the same situation.

Touch some grass.

The part where Joe was walking off and then returned to the podium to speak more and Jon was like, “What are you doing?!” was hilarious. Also the part about accounts from staffers and other officials recounting how sharp and focused Joe is in meetings and Jon said, “You should film that.” That’s good stuff. 

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OMG he pointed out things about Joe Biden. What a horrible guy. I thought it was hilarious when they showed everyone gushing over how Joe commands the room and is very much cognizant and mentally present, and hes like ".....did you record any of that?"

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The people who most need to watch Jon Stewart would simply turn it off if he spent 20 minutes attacking Trump.

It's a fair discussion. Biden is old as shit and has gotten noticeably older in just the last couple years. It's an issue and this was a good way to promote discussion AND more importantly not have MAGAts simply turn the channel. I imagine this will be the strategy for a few months. Get people hooked and then start increasing the focus on Trump's traitorous actions as the hearings get going.

I think having some of the left wing pundits come out and attack him about bothsiderism is just part of the bigger plan to increase interest from the right.

Jon Stewart is incredibly sharp. Some of y'all are playing checkers and Stewart is playing chess.


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2 minutes ago, immamac said:

Jon Stewart drawing the ire of anyone for his political coverage is exactly how I can identify the people who are broken brained. 

> be immamac

> post extensively bemoaning the lack of decorum in his forum's discourse 

> post that everyone who disagrees with me is "broken brained"

> ???

> profit!

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1 hour ago, HoustonHorn said:

The people who most need to watch Jon Stewart would simply turn it off if he spent 20 minutes attacking Trump.

It's a fair discussion. Biden is old as shit and has gotten noticeably older in just the last couple years. It's an issue and this was a good way to promote discussion AND more importantly not have MAGAts simply turn the channel. I imagine this will be the strategy for a few months. Get people hooked and then start increasing the focus on Trump's traitorous actions as the hearings get going.

I think having some of the left wing pundits come out and attack him about bothsiderism is just part of the bigger plan to increase interest from the right.

Jon Stewart is incredibly sharp. Some of y'all are playing checkers and Stewart is playing chess.

 

Yeah i didnt see any "both sidesing". He spoke truthfully about both candidates. He pointed out that they were the oldest candidates ever.....4 years ago. He pointed out that one guy is sort of a garden variety old dude who has typical "oops" moments and made fun of the people that try to act like he isnt old as fuck. He pointed out that the other dude, along with his children, are deranged morons. I didnt see anything that wasnt simply true.

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It was bad timing, IMO. Stewart comes back for the first time in nine years, in a week where all you heard about was how old Biden is. And proceeds to talk mostly about how old Biden is. Like, fuck, we get it. Meanwhile, Stupid Hitler over here is up against 91 felony counts and wants to end NATO and start WW3. Maybe the focus will shift there, but it is frustrating. 

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1 hour ago, HoustonHorn said:

The people who most need to watch Jon Stewart would simply turn it off if he spent 20 minutes attacking Trump.

It's a fair discussion. Biden is old as shit and has gotten noticeably older in just the last couple years. It's an issue and this was a good way to promote discussion AND more importantly not have MAGAts simply turn the channel. 

Just exactly how many MAGAts do you think are watching Jon Stewart?

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2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Just exactly how many MAGAts do you think are watching Jon Stewart?

The problem is it only takes the one MAGAt to edit it to include only the Biden elements and slap an "Even Dem fanboi Jon Stewart thinks Biden has no business running for prez" label on it, and that shit will make the GQP bubble rounds so fast it'll make your head spin.  

And that's not even the real problem - the real problem is that if he ends up convincing even a small chunk of the Dem base (specifically the younger voters) that it's not worth voting because both candidates are shitty, we're fucked.  

While I normally love Jon, I thought it was a stupid fucking thing to do.

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I'll always have a soft spot for Stewart, but he's fundamentally still the same guy who did the rally to restore sanity. There's still something he just very fundamentally doesn't grasp about the modern right and his "most of us are sane people with generally the same values and we should be able to find common ground" schtick is just absolutely not adequate for the current times. 

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49 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Something has happened to his speech, like he's wearing a partial plate. Pronounces his "s"s like a Dutchman. Found it very dishtracting to lishten to shome damn Dutchman.

He's 61 years old.  Shit eventually starts to break.  Ask me how I know.

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51 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I'll always have a soft spot for Stewart, but he's fundamentally still the same guy who did the rally to restore sanity. There's still something he just very fundamentally doesn't grasp about the modern right and his "most of us are sane people with generally the same values and we should be able to find common ground" schtick is just absolutely not adequate for the current times. 

I dunno man. He compared Trump and Maga to a "barbarians at the gate moment" for the country, in the same monologue in which he picked on Biden about his age. I interpreted the frustration over Biden's age and associated gaffes as being more about needing someone better equipped to meet that moment. I know the type you describe, and I'm not sure Stewart fits that mold, at least based on the 20 mins I watched. Though, tbf, I haven't been keeping abreast of him for at least a decade so maybe he's more like Maher than I'm aware.

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44 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I'll always have a soft spot for Stewart, but he's fundamentally still the same guy who did the rally to restore sanity. There's still something he just very fundamentally doesn't grasp about the modern right and his "most of us are sane people with generally the same values and we should be able to find common ground" schtick is just absolutely not adequate for the current times. 

I generally finding myself agreeing or at least understanding your comments more often than not.  But I think you are a bit off here.  The reason Beto did so well was because he went out to talk with people and wasn't demonizing them for their views.  He ran a very very good outreach campaign.  But the reason he lost, was because he didn't also run an attack dog campaign to smear and make it embarrassing to vote for Cruz.    Stewart is trying to get people to remember why they give a shit and to stop the division.   I doubt he thinks he can reach Roger Stone, or extremists conspiracy nutters.  But it would be possible to reach people like my mother.   People who have been hoodwinked, realize it, but are just unsure they can make a change or who hate the rhetoric coming from the people they vote for.  

There is a reason that some of the polls suggest nearly 80% of people want gun control.  That gives us hope.  The problem is that we have disinformation networks with good production/entertainment value.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/699998/fox-news-viewers-age/

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Jon Stewart's job is not to stump for Joe Biden. He is not a panderer. He is going to do what he thinks is relevant and make it funny. The second he starts worrying about how it will be received is the second he stops being true to who he is.

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Just exactly how many MAGAts do you think are watching Jon Stewart?
Not too many before but I bet a fair amount tuned in for the novelty. If they missed it but saw that Evil Libs are upset at Stewart they may have decided to watch on YouTube.

They get something that's not simply Trump bashing and maybe they stick with it for a while. If he had only focused on Trump for his multitude of treasonous actions they would immediately turn the channel. Instead, they saw something relatively funny, and not solely focused on Trump is evil. He hasn't been on The Daily Show for a long time and is relatively forgotten on Apple it wherever he is by people not actively searching him out.

And it isn't really hardcore MAGAts that need to tune in. It's independents and Republicans who are tired of Trump but only hear negative things about Biden who might be swayed.

Everyone here attacks FattyFlatty over and over again and nothing changes with his idiotic opinions. This isn't geared towards changing the minds of people like that. It's a clever way to become regular viewing for people who might not be so ingrained in their beliefs. But if the first thing they see is Fuck Trump, they'll immediately change the channel. Now they might stay for a while if the message is somewhat split between going after both candidates.

In a few months, the economy will likely continue to be humming, hopefully inflation continues to go down, and Trump will be involved in several court cases. Then the messaging can skew and hopefully start to alter some minds.

I could be wrong and maybe Jon Stewart is simply in it too make a quick buck and attack both sides equally. His history has shown a much more nuanced and reasoned approach and I think that's what this is.

Give people an offramp from the craziness. There are people out there who don't like the current Republican party, but only get messaging about how bad and evil Democrats are. They might actually listen if they aren't feeling attacked from the get go. It's hard enough to get people to change their thinking, but just attacking their beliefs outright, no matter how wrong or misguided, only causes them to dig in. But using humor to change the messaging they are hearing might get some traction for some of those people.

My $0.02. I probably shouldn't have used the term MAGAts in my original post.
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I don't have a problem with Stewart leveling criticism at #bothsides, where warranted.  Gig Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal, for instance.  (Yeah, I know, Trump's plan.  Biden pulled the trigger.)  Gig him on, I don't know, still too high fuel and grocery prices.  But for goodness' sake, don't feed into the "too old" angle, because (a) he's not much older than Trump and (b) it's not clear that Biden is particularly deficient when it comes to running the government.

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I don't have a problem with Stewart leveling criticism at #bothsides, where warranted.  Gig Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal, for instance.  (Yeah, I know, Trump's plan.  Biden pulled the trigger.)  Gig him on, I don't know, still too high fuel and grocery prices.  But for goodness' sake, don't feed into the "too old" angle, because (a) he's not much older than Trump and (b) it's not clear that Biden is particularly deficient when it comes to running the government.
I think he attacked both for their age sufficiently and it was subtly very clever in basically making it known that Trump is also the oldest to ever run besides Biden. Slant the commentary slightly more against Biden early on to keep the people who need to be engaged, engaged. But still put Trump in the in the same boat without having to call him out specifically.

Plus it's a legitimate issue and I don't think he's going to gain credibility by ignoring it. Afghanistan is in the distant past and people aren't tuning in to hear about that. They could talk the border and I imagine that will be the topic soon. It allows him to #bothsides that as well.

He's trying to cozy up to the center right, not the center left. That's who needs to be swayed eventually. Can't do that without a bit of a rope-a-dope which means taking some shots.

I think over time he'll start shifting slowly towards more attacks at Trump. He already leveled a more serious attack on Trump in the first episode. That will continue. But he still has to #bothsides where he can to not be seen as only demonizing Trump/Republicans.

It's a fine line to walk for sure, though.



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8 hours ago, HoustonHorn said:

The people who most need to watch Jon Stewart would simply turn it off if he spent 20 minutes attacking Trump.

It's a fair discussion. Biden is old as shit and has gotten noticeably older in just the last couple years. It's an issue and this was a good way to promote discussion AND more importantly not have MAGAts simply turn the channel. I imagine this will be the strategy for a few months. Get people hooked and then start increasing the focus on Trump's traitorous actions as the hearings get going.

I think having some of the left wing pundits come out and attack him about bothsiderism is just part of the bigger plan to increase interest from the right.

Jon Stewart is incredibly sharp. Some of y'all are playing checkers and Stewart is playing chess.

 

Meanwhile, I tried watching the Jordan Klepper episode from the next night and he just went into his stupid schtick interviewing magats at rallies and showing how nuts they are.  Yeah, we all know that.  He's not good.

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