JoshuaJSlone
Member
The more I pay attention to more straight-laced commentary and criticism of the news (like at The Daily Howler), the more I appreciate how much of it I was already getting through The Daily Show. One of the Howler's favorite things to bitch about is how pundits and newsmen will choose a few traits and stories about someone, and act like that's the only thing worth providing evidence about. Gore is a liar who claimed to "invent" the Internet. W Bush isn't so bright and makes mistakes in speech. Kerry is a flip-flopper. So The Daily Show had a segment a couple weeks back about how much easier it was for the news to cover people and issues when they all seemed to share the same scripts.
If you're on the west coast you haven't seen tonight's episode yet, so I suppose I should spoiler this paragraph.
If you're on the west coast you haven't seen tonight's episode yet, so I suppose I should spoiler this paragraph.
Or tonight a member of the Republican Rapid Response Team was the interviewee. This congressman (I don't recall his name) said he wished more politicians would be more honest about what they are; he's proud to be a conservative, and John Kerry should be proud about being a liberal. Jon tried to get out of him the source and context of the oft-repeated claim that John Kerry is the most liberal senator, and Edwards is the fourth. (Of course, this would be something that would seem a positive thing to me.) The guy either didn't know the full context, or didn't want to talk about it, claiming it came from a variety of groups and was for throughout the years. After a couple minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get the facts from this guy, Jon Stewart reveals that he knows it's from the National Journal, only takes into account one year, and that looking throughout their careers they're much closer to the center. He goes on to wish all sides wouldn't spin so much. Rock on Jon!