Jon Stewart on Crossfire

October 15, 2004

Tonight, Jon Stewart had an unbelievable appearance on CNN's Crossfire. He accused Crossfire, its hosts and similar shows of being pundit hacks. As he put it, these shows are theater and not news.

As Aaron Swartz put it, Stewart is "clearly the most serious threat to Politics As Usual we’ve had in a long time." After watching hundreds of episodes of the Daily Show, I'd never thought of it in that way, but Stewart is really able to uncover what's wrong about our system. Jon constantly insists that his show is comedy, which is definitely true, but I often wish it wasn't. His show is incredibly powerful, even in its comedic form, and I'd love to see him or some likeminded individual bring this highly critical approach to a "real news" show.

If you're interested in watching the show, which I definitely recommend, go to Randomfoo to download or to CNN for the transcript.

Advertisement