asking how it pertains to tomorrow
lately on the daily show, jon stewart's had some high-profile republicans visit, and IMHO he hasn't handled things very well. a month back, former UN ambassador john bolton was on, and after harping on the typical anti-bush talking points, he seemed to flounder when bolton actually offered a thoughtful, intelligent answer.
a few weeks later, former white house chief of staff andy card shows up. a friendly, articulate guy, card went into full-scale spin mode and it blew jon's mind, and despite some laughs he didn't really have any coherent responses to the spin. it wasn't too painful, though, they managed to make it kind of funny.
last night's interview with john mccain was the worst of it, horrendous and excruciating to watch. remember a few years ago, when he was on crossfire and he reamed them for black + white partisan bickering? apparently he forgot all of that stuff about "i work on a comedy show", he and mccain babbled over each other, piling their talking points and sound-bite quotes on the table like it was a talk radio show.
i appreciate that the producers of the daily show are becoming cognizant of their position in the grand scheme of TV news - that a significant demographic watches only their show for news, and not CNN or fox or msnbc or the networks. maybe they are trying to change the tone during interviews with high-profile political figures, because they feel some kind of responsibility... it just goes against everything that the show stands for.
jon stewart is a very intelligent, passionate guy... but he's not a pundit, and his show isn't founded on those principles. his 5-10 minute 'interviews' don't provide enough time to allow for serious (i.e. unfunny) discussions or third-degree grilling sessions... and he doesn't seem adequately equipped to defend any particular point of view.
i don't know. it's starting to sour on me, and it sucks, because it's normally very funny. i don't watch insane pundits like o'reilly or lou dobbs because they make my brain hurt, and i nearly turned off the mccain interview in disgust last night for the same reason. maybe jon needs a second show on another network where he can spend a full 30 minutes talking some sense with people like this - separate the funny from the serious journalist.
I've been turned off from the Daily Show for a long time.
The show has really lost its originality. Every show starts off the same way: Jon making the same, tired jokes about the war in Iraq and then having a mediocre fake news segment where a "journalist" talks in a sarcastic tone on how the war is actually going great.
I realize that it's a hot topic, as it should be, but I don't think it's necessary to dedicate every night towards it, making the same comments night in and night out.
I think its funny that they run segments on the President saying the same phrases over and over again, when in reality the Daily Show does the same thing.
yeah, i've been finding myself watching just the headlines and occasionally the interviews, and skipping the 'special reports' and the discussions with correspondents (except for John Hodgeman who is hilarious every time)...