No one who watches Jon Stewart's brilliant The Daily Show with a halfway open mind equates said program with hard, genuine journalism. It's a fucking comedy program meant to satirize and outright humiliate what should be sources of hard, genuine journalism. Fox News, CNN, and even at times NBC/MSNBC are the usual suspects, kind of in that order for most recurring. Jon said it himself practically ten years ago why he has the usual sources for mockery and satire: they're absurd.
Yet people will tell you, stupidly enough, that he's "not just a comedian." The closest you could come to agreeing with them is to accept that yes, Jon Stewart has a position, and it is a liberal one, but the comedy he puts out speaks for itself because that's what his audience (which includes myself, although I don't tend to watch television and am not personally subscribed to any networks his program airs on) expects. If you want to know what his actual positions are, then stop being a fucking pussy and put him on your show. Oh and don't pull a Tucker Carlson with the smartass remarks and strawmen, a la Crossfire circa 2004. Be a man and probe for the answers like any respectful person in the media would, because media figures of that descriptor are few & far between these days.
But I haven't gotten to the real deal about this post. The following guy is what I want to delve into:
The above mug, for the uninitiated, is the rather droll "professional media critic" who has celebrated the anniversary to his rather lukewarm hop over to the Fox News legion on June 20, 2013. If you're a "media critic" working for the mainstream media, then by principle, you cannot be taken with nary a grain of salt in terms of credibility. Even worse yet that he's toiling for the plutocratic horde at Fox News, but that's not the focus here.
Howard has gone after, you guessed it, Jon Stewart on at least one occasion, even sharing some ire for the equally brilliant Stephen Colbert. Just like many of Stewart & Colbert's critics, they're obtuse about the credibility of their respective programs. But this is all deliberate, you see? Both programs, particularly The Daily Show, mock the wasteland that is the beltway media for the status quo circlejerks that they are, and Kurtz, who knows who he is working for, slams Stewart & Colbert for it. Recently, Kurtz pretty much begged for the attention that Stewart's program would afford his by asking, or more accurately begging to be a guest on the program:
You'd like that wouldn't you, you hack? Too bad you're too small fry for Stewart's program to waste time on, because you contribute almost nothing to any conversation. Be glad that you even have a job on that joke of a "news" network, you joke. And yes, he is "just a comedian", at least in regard to anything from his program that you and your overlords loathe so much. So here you are carrying out the usual labours hoisted upon the dogs at Fox News, attacking a fucking comedy program time and time again, never accomplishing anything in your favour. You didn't have a valid criticism of Stewart's segment that you've shown, so you figured it'd be best to leave such for the odd incident where you'd be featured as a guest sitting next to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, possibly getting Tucker Carlson'd into the shadows of irrelevance you so sorely need at this point. Keep the dreams a comin', Howie, 'cause it probably ain't gone happen any time soon.
