Chris Wallace doesn’t argue.
Jon Stewart is the business, whether it’s calling Tucker Carlson a bow-tie-wearing dick, or calling Fox News insane and stupid to its face:
Stewart: I’m given credibility in this world because of the disappointment the public has in what the news media does.
Wallace: I don’t think our viewers are the least bit disappointed in us. I think our viewers think finally they’re getting someone who tells the other side of the story.
Stewart: And in polls who is the most consistently misinformed media viewers? Who’s consistently misinformed? Fox. Fox viewers.
Somebody had to say it.
[cross-posted]
General Stuck
Our Manic Progressives a while back threw Stewart under their angst powered poutrage bus for this or that infraction to the libtard purity spirits, so this thread ought to be a fun rehash of that, or maybe they will fish his tattered carcass back above board for a second chance at sponge worthiness.
Darius
Wow, Jon was pretty harsh in that clip.
You might even say he was… uncivil.
M. Bouffant
If only FOX viewers were disappointed in FOX for
lying tomisleading them.JGabriel
Stewart didn’t call Fox viewers misinformed. They did that themselves by incorrectly answering factual (fact-based?) questions.
Stewart merely informed Fox viewers of that result and that they are misinformed.
See? It’s not name-calling, it’s teaching. I expect they didn’t much like the lesson, though.
.
Violet
Jon Stewart is shrill? Someone alert Bobo! Prep the salad bar at Applebee’s!
Joel
That was the fucking balls.
When he’s good, he’s really good.
Turbulence
Our Manic Progressives a while back threw Stewart under their angst powered poutrage bus for this or that infraction to the libtard purity spirits
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I did make the point that Stewart is basically a political nihilist; he’s very much a member of the cult of the savvy. As such, he looks down on people who take politics and policy seriously: they’re not in on the joke like him and the cool kids. I mean, this is the guy who seriously compared Code Pink protesting wars to the Tea Party and drew a false equivalence; sorry, but that shit’s just fucking stupid. Still, he occasionally does very good things and its nice to see him doing something besides fellating McCain on air. Yet again.
harlana
Colbert still claims the mantle of Extraordinary Comedic Bravery, 6 years ahead of Stewart.
Davis X. Machina
This is why he puts my teeth on edge. Self-government can’t survive sufficiently high levels of irony. Someone has to take this stuff seriously, or it doesn’t get done.
There are people out who take this stuff deadly seriously, and they’re not on the side of the angels. Given their power, they have to be swamped with numbers.
Douglas
When was the last time you’ve seen TDS? 2006?
Turbulence
When was the last time you’ve seen TDS? 2006?
About a month ago. Like I said, sometimes, he does great work and I’ll admit that recently the McCain fluffing has lessened.
DougJ
I like Stewart when’s like this, but I will never forgive him for pushing the ACORN story.
Jeff
Dude,your serious?
First, Stewart is a comedian, a man who’s job is to find things funny in the day’s news. Since the Administration is Democratic,from time to time he is going to find things funny in the Democratic party and Barack Obama.
Second, Stewart, far from being a political nihilist, is actually more of a political idealist, who skewers the actual nihilists, the pols and media types who think that substance is irrelevant, what is important is process, and the game.
General Stuck
I agree that Chris Wallace is one of the best interviewers on cable teevee. He has the Fox bias, but I see a lot of his pappy in him, even with wingnuts when their bullshit reaches bizzaro levels.
Stewart is Stewart, big ego, and all the other character flaws of a teevee celebrity. But somehow, he always manages to ask the right question at some point, even after sometimes jacking around with smug condescension/ The dude was/is a pioneer though, mixing fake news and delivering real news with a patented caustic whit, that ranges from missing the point entirely, to making a bullseye way more than not.
I don’t know why some liberals feel they own him in some political way, and get so butthurt when he doesn’t toe some expected ideological line.
ABL
i hears ya.
jwb
@General Stuck: Too many of us are lazy asses who think other people should be doing our work for us and then we throw hissy fits when someone who is actually doing shit doesn’t do exactly what we want.
DougJ in Damascus
Also too, I don’t give anyone that much credit for trashing Fox. When he starts trashing Bobo and the Kaplan crowd, then he will earn my undying respect.
His show does a lot of good, I admit it, but I don’t think his shtick is all that courageous.
UofAZGrad
But, but, but. . .what kind of mustard does Stewart eat?
drkrick
Have you ever seen him interview someone who takes policy seriously? If he doesn’t respect that fact about them, he’s a heck of a lot better actor than he gets credit for.
lamh34
I prefer Colbert over Stewart.
My main problem with Stewart is this false equivalency that he like to traffic in, that say both sides do it. NO both side may do “it”, but one side is batshit crazy and has been and is embracing the crazy.
It pisses me off to no end.
Having said that he has his moments.
But Colbert seems more of a doer than Stewart. I may have missed it, but Colbert seems like he uses his “persona” as a means to point out shit and actually uses it to oh I don’t know, testify in front of Congress thereby brining his “pet issues” into a broader spotlight.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Your call, but Stewart did apologize for that — on air. (Tried to find a link to the video, but Comedy Central’s search tools kind of suck).
.
Turbulence
Second, Stewart, far from being a political nihilist, is actually more of a political idealist, who skewers the actual nihilists, the pols and media types who think that substance is irrelevant, what is important is process, and the game.
I’m sorry, what exactly what was the rally to restore sanity about besides nihilism? You bring together tens of thousands of people so that you can strut up about pushing false equivalence bullshit and…what exactly?
Loneoak
I’m sure Stewart is just heartbroken over not getting forgiveness from DougJ and various bloggers. I’ll say the same thing that I say whenever NPR gets shit on around here: these folks, even the good ones, live in a fucked up environment that doesn’t allow the kind of radical departure from Village wisdom that we might want. To blame Stewart, or NPR, for existing in that environment would be to abdicate it to FOX entirely.
CaseyL
I think Stewart is exactly what he says he is, an entertainer, and I think it bemuses him as well as pisses him off some that he has become, by default, a “real” journalist because the ones we think of as “real journalists” aren’t doing their jobs.
OT: My kitteh Oscar came home with another injury: a nasty wound of some sort on his neck. It was bleeding, but sluggishly. I got him into a carrier and called the vet, but they had no appointments open. “You could take him to the ER,” they said – yeah, for twice the money and, if there’s anything badly wrong, they can’t do much but patch him up and tell me to take him to his regular doctor in the morning.
I called another clinic that wasn’t even open on Sundays, and decided to let the poor little guy out of the carrier. I put some Neosporin on the wound (at least I hope some got on the wound: between his long fur and his refusal to hold still, for all I know I just smeared it all over his fur) and am keeping a eye on him.
I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know if it’s another cat or a raccoon or what, or if Oscar is the one starting the fight. There is another kittie who likes to hang out at our end of the townhouse complex, and I think he and Oscar are competing to see who’s the Big Cat On Campus. Unfortunately, this other guy is twice Oscar’s size. Though, for all I know, he’s giving as good as he’s getting.
Other than keeping him inside from now on (which would make him incredibly unhappy) I don’t know what to do. Suggestions? Please?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i like both of them. i think its somewhat unreasonable to think you should be able to laugh at every joke. yes stewart was wrong on acorn, and a bunch of other things, and i am sure colbert has been wrong too, though its tougher to tell, because of the way his act works. i don’t want a comedian that doesn’t offend me, that is a hack who isn’t pushing hard enough. like dane cook, or jay leno.
in my mind i am picturing lewis black doing ed shultz, funny shit, sorry for not sharing.
cleek
no no no.
Stewart is a half-measure, half-friend who is in the bag, like the rest of the so-called LIBERAL MEDIA, for the oligarchist corporatist conservative agenda! he can’t even get his fucking LIBERAL talking points down right and he STABS US IN THE BACK every time he gets near something serious. RALLY TO RESTORE HANNITY is more like it!
FAIL!
FAIL!
half friend!
hate him.
i blame Obama.
vonhonkington
though i generally like him, i am often disappointed with on stewart for two reasons.
1) he’s awfully eager to jump in with a “democrats do it too” whenever he can. my theory is that he needs to convince truly repugnant people to come on his show to have a friendly chat. they won’t do this if he doesn’t make jibes about democrats often or loudly enough.
2) he has all the infrastructure and capability to do real journalism. the show had correspondents in iran during the uprising. they have people watching the other news networks 24/7. so he creeps pretty close to the line. however, whenever jon stewart thinks anyone sees him near the line, he jumps up and says, “hey! this is just comedy! come on guys, you know i didn’t really mean it.” what’s the point of having all that capability if you’re just going to make nice with everyone in dc?
i find colbert to be better viewing, since his naked bias allows him to more freely tear into a topic.
Mark S.
By the bottom of the barrel standards of the cesspool that is Fox News, Chris Wallace might be the closest they have to an actual journalist. But Christ, he still works for Fox and he still is a disingenuous cretin. What the fuck relevance does the programming of Comedy Central have to do with the content of Stewart’s show? And does Wallace really want to go there, considering the crap his network regularly spews on primetime?
mr. whipple
It might make him unhappy, but at least he wouldn’t end up injured or dead, and you’d save on vet bills.
Linda Featheringill
CaseyL:
You may have to keep Oscar inside. And he will fuss at you but would adjust eventually.
Do check him out thoroughly in the morning to see if his wound is getting infected or anything.
Good luck to you and to Oscar. Hope you two can work through this.
The Spy Who Loved Me
He seems to like Wallace. At least I think so, since he seemed to spend a little time blowing him.
General Stuck
Even a cesspool produces a flower now and then. Aside from guilt by association, I have seen no other journalist on cable news question wingnuts as doggedly as Wallace on his Sunday show. Bar none, Fox News cesspool or not
Linda Featheringill
Question:
Do you really think that Stewart is more nihilistic than the BJ community as a whole is?
Mark S.
Oh, and for the 3,654th rendition of the Stewart vs Colbert debate, I am firmly in the Stewart camp. Colbert has certainly had some moments, but I got tired of the shtick about the third time I watched him.
Stewart is about the only talking head besides maybe Maddow where if he’s interviewing someone who just wrote a book, has either read it or at least been briefed on it. Most jackasses on TV won’t know a fucking thing about it besides the title.
Sentient Puddle
@Linda Featheringill: You win this thread. Congrats!
Mark S.
@General Stuck:
All right, General, I will grant you that if it’s a choice between Meet the Press and Wallace, I’ll take Wallace. God I hate MTP, whichever dipshit they have hosting it.
Joel
I didn’t realize that Chris Wallace was Mike Wallace’s son. Just because he’s one of the least-smelly turds in the septic tank doesn’t make him good. Of course, I haven’t watched a Sunday morning show since.. ever.
stuckinred
stuckinred
“Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of “Nat Soc”
Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
stupid fucking filter
d. john
“Our Manic Progressives a while back threw Stewart under their angst powered poutrage bus for this or that ”
So when I said Jon Stewart was wrong for his false equivelance of right vs. left tactics, that was “poutrage”
And when I said that I felt he was mistaken in believing that Obama should have released the photo of Osama’s corpse, that was “poutrage”?
That’s 2 times I’ve disagreed with him in about a decade. He’s hard to disagree with, cuz he’s mostly just doing comedy…
The man is the best interviewer on television. The man runs a show that is a shining beacon of reason (ironically) in a media awash in a river of lies.
But I criticized him 2x too much. So I’m one of those pouty manic progressives. I see.
You should probably focus your attention less on your neighbors, and direct it at injustices done by people that actually have some power.
After all, you just did your part to turn a thread that could have been about how great Jon Stewart was on this segment into a potential discussion about Jon’s short comings, just by bringing up what you did at the top of the thread. What’s the point?
cleek
he’s a comedian.
his job is not to lead the great liberal crusade against whatever The Base is mad about that day. his job is to make the news funny.
Linda Featheringill
Sentient Puddle #36:
Thank you. [purrs]
General Stuck
LOL, I love it when they fall in the trolled trap feets first.
Jeffro
I think Wallace only gets tough on wingnuts once in a while because a) it helps give the false impression that FOX actually is f&b, but more importantly, b) it serves to toughen up wingnut candidates a bit.
I mean, at some point there’s the potential that they’ll be outside of the FOX bubble and have to answer for their record/vote/views. No wait, not actually answer for it, that would imply accountability. But at least actually hear a question or something…you’ve got to be ready for that sort of liberal trickery.
AlladinsLamp
Re: Oscar.
Trim the hair around the wound to prevent the hair from matting over the wound; this is how to prevent most skin abscesses from starting. Trimming will allow you (and Oscar) to clean the would and will make it more easy to apply antibiotic ointment.
Better to do it now, or later the vet will do it to drain the abscess.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Turbulence
Really? I don’t see much difference between interrupting Congressional committee hearings and interrupting town hall meetings- in fact, the former might do more to harm civil public discourse- or much difference between those shouting “murderer” at an Ob/Gyn who performs abortions and shouting “murderer” at Bob Gates.
d. john
Mark S,
I agree with you about Stewart vs. Colbert.
However, much love for Colbert,
and I was super impressed with his congressional comittee presentation on immigration – regardless of what the haters say. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWcQEO1OG4Q
Still, Stewart is the better interviewer, and the Daily Show is an institution. It essentially helped launched Colbert to where he is…
Jon Stewart on Crossfire
Jon Stewart / Jimmy Carter interviews – i saved these
Jon Stewart / Dick Cheney interview
Jon Stewart / Bill O’Rielly – hey – what can I say.
god I could go on. I almost prefer the ones with the crazys in a way, becase JS is just so god damned good at getting people to open up.
David Gregory isn’t fit to polish Jon Stewart’s shoes…
I’ll actually watch interviews when Jon is involved.
Can’t say much for anyone else, either blase, or a pack of bullshit is all I get.
Even Colbert’s are lackluster by comparison.
(Don’t get me wrong, I really like Colbert) – he’s just not my favvorite.
Mark S.
Some Idaho state senator got arrested for DWI. Big whoop. He also got arrested for felony grand theft when he stole a truck with a trailer attached to it, jackknifed it into a yard, and decided the hell with it and went to sleep in the cab. Now that’s a crazy fucking night.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@linda fetheringill 34
i don’t think its fair to categorize the totality of the bj community as one derogatory sexual euphemism or the other.
d. john
General Stuck,
If you troll bait people will bite.
Arguably, that makes you a troll.
You need a better hobby.
Yutsano
Caldwell is less heavily Mormon than the rest of that area, at least it was when I lived there. I wonder what his slap on the wrist will be.
JGabriel
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:
That’s not categorizing — at BJ, that’s just how we say, “Hi!”
.
d. john
General Stuck,
“I don’t know why some liberals feel they own him in some political way, and get so butthurt when he doesn’t toe some expected ideological line.”
Well, the two things I criticized him over he was being DEAD serious about.
Watch the show. He’s not always playing.
That’s part of what makes him good, IMO.
I don’t expect him to toe a line, anymore than anyone.
But why the fuck are you so upset that some people just *might* criticize him over a thing or two he may have said that they disagree with. So much so, that you had to PREEMPTIVELY defend him.
If he’s a comedian, than take your own advice and get the fuck over it.
Take a deep breath. JS doesn’t need you on his dick. He can handle himself.
scav
There’s certainly less opportunity for whining when you give up hope in a single silver-bullet infallible savior consistently available on cable. When Jon and Colbert are on, they’re on and I wouldn’t trade them for any po-faced messiahs.
JGabriel
Mark S.:
And that, kidZ, is why you never mix meth with Night Train.
.
General Stuck
d john
Every body got to walk on the wild side now and then. Or as my grandaddy used to say. “Sometimes you got to pick shit with the chickens, and other times you just gotta be an asshole on the blogs”
Did you and Matoko break up already? jeebus, that was quick. :)
d. john
skav,
I’ve never expected that of him.
I said he was wrong a couple of times.
On blogs.
OHHHH NOESSSS… we can’t have that ZOMMGG WTF ZOMG
that’s what I have a problem with.
There’s a difference between criticizing a public figure for taking a position you don’t agree with, and saying that I’m not gonna watch him and he’s an evil bastard and I hate the man or that have lost respect for him.
For the record, JS is the greatest interviewer American TV has right now. He’s brilliant, funny, and thoughtful. The fact that I have disagreed with him a couple of times doesn’t detract from that.
There’s nothing wrong with criticism. In fact, a smart guy like JS probably reflects on it.
Honest criticism!=being a hater.
The difference isn’t hard to see.
MattMinus
The clip that Wallace showed was just bizarre. What was that non sequitur supposed to prove? “You can’t criticize the news on our news channel because your comedy channel features people telling jokes”?
scav
d. john. Wanna feel singled out, go for it. You look good in that apricot scarf.
General Stuck
Lighten up Francis. And get a hold of yourself before you start acting really silly. My comments were not directed at you, they are referenced from the last time we had a thread on Stewart and some folks just went over the edge with Stewart bashing, imo. I don’t remember you being there, and I certainly wasn’t talking about isolated criticism of him sometimes, as being warranted. Calm down
A Humble Lurker
The thing about Jon is that he doesn’t want to believe people are as bad as folks here know they are. To me, he revealed that in his most recent interview with Elizabeth Warren where they were talking about the banksters and he said something to the effect of ‘I just…on some level I just refuse to believe they could be that craven’. I remember thinking to myself, “They are Jon, they are.” I think he believes everyone has some level of conscience. I do too, but I believe there are a lot of people who’ve trained themselves well not to hear theirs and couldn’t anymore even if they wanted to.
That said, they man can be on. Very on. I enjoy him very much when he is.
Linda Featheringill
fucen whatever:
:-) My apologies, dear.
d. john
scav,
I just went through this on a previous thread here. It’s a pattern.
You will be assimilated. Or we will hate on you, seems to be the mantra of some of the regulars here.
If GS hadn’t opened the thread with such an asinine statement, this wouldn’t have even happened.
Just sayin. Read the thread.
El Cid
Having to say to Chris Wallace that he’s a “fair” and “tough” interviewer* is something that I would find it really difficult to do, unless maybe it was the only way anyone would pull me out from drowning in a lake of asparagus-enhanced urine. I’d do it then.
The best interviewer on FOZNOOZ? Is that even a category?
General Stuck
I make asinine statements all the time, and am not alone in that department. Take a deep breath, and you will probly grow the thicker skin required to keep your shit glued together on this rowdy, sometimes vicious weblog.
d. john
“I don’t remember you being there, and I certainly wasn’t talking about isolated criticism of him sometimes, as being warranted. Calm down”
Alright.
I can’t promise I won’t bite again when you bait.
This flaming of people with differing views seems a relatively new phenomenon to balloon juice. Not quite but it wasn’t the same. I’m not used to it, and frankly I don’t like it. Before I didn’t have to worry that my support of all the amendments in the BOR including the 2nd one would set off a flame war. Now If I go off the reservation at all it’s a flame flame flame .. just like huffpo.. & C&L .. meh..that’s why I left
So having just got in a battle with a blind obama bot here, and then seeing this bullshit at the top of thread?
Yeah it set me off…
Sick of the “ima hate on some progressives” they’re all whiny bitches theme that seems to have taken hold here lately.
gbear
I’d make popcorn but it’s too close to bedtime.
scav
d. john
and I’m just saying it’s apricot you’re wearing as you desperately try to dance to center stage in glitter and make my statement all about you. although, given the soft-shoe I’m seeing here, you may being earning your reputation.
Sharl
JGabriel @22:
John Stewart’s stylized mea culpa – for being taken in by Breitbart’s operation against ACORN via the faux pimp-ho duo – is contained in this 4m47s clip. Content with specific background starts a bit beyond the 2m50s point, and JS’s mea culpa (not an apology, fwiw) starts just beyond the 3m16s point. [Original offending/offensive TDS video here.]
Mark S.
Eagles: motherfuckin’ menaces to society:
Deer dropped by eagle knocks out power in Montana
Bald eagles attack post office at Alaska port
Yutsano
Go raptorz. That is all.
d. john
In my haste to post, I forgot the reason I began that last post in the first place.
I stand by what I said above, but I’d like to add,
that I’m sorry I let you get my goat.
I am a bit frustrated with the troll quotient lately I guess, and my thin skin is probably somewhat attributable to me watching so many trolls just spew nonsense here. I don’t like feeling like I’m losing one of my favorite blogs to the stew of trolls. Whether they be obamabot trolls or republibot trolls.
Maybe you aren’t one. And maybe I was offbase in reading your intentions.
I’m sorry about that. I hate seeing a good blog die.
I hardly ever posted here before because I didn’t NEED to… somebody, somewhere on the thread, always said something I was thinking, and all angles were generally hashed out.
Reading the comments here is often a joy.
Am I being overly nostalgic or did the signal to noise ration at Balloon Juice shift significantly over the past 6 months?
Anyway, I’m sorry I jumped your case Stuck…
Turbulence
Really? I don’t see much difference between interrupting Congressional committee hearings and interrupting town hall meetings-
In the specific case I’m thinking of, on the episode where he announced his rally for nihilism, he was mocking Code Pink for marching in the street. You know, with a permit. And he was mocking the Tea Baggers for…well, as far as I could tell, for giving a shit. If you look at the Tea Baggers and the only thing you find funny or sad or absurd about them is that they seem to give a shit about politics, there’s something not right with you.
d. john
“e I’m seeing here, you may being earning your reputation.”
My reputation?
What reputation is that?
I hardly thought I deserve any kind of rep. I post here a couple of days at a time once in awhile… didn’t think I earned a reputation.
Is there some secret I’m not in on?
What is my reputation, pray tell?
Turbulence
For the record, JS is the greatest interviewer American TV has right now.
WTF? This is completely backwards to me. I like Stewart when he’s not interviewing; he can be really funny at times. But his interviews are either awful or dull. Remember how John Yoo wiped the floor with him? How the fuck do you interview JOHN FUCKING YOO, the guy who went on the record affirming the President’s right to personally crush the testicles of any young boy in America, and get your ass handed to you without even mentioning testicle crushing. Seriously, can someone explain that?
Or remember his interview with Perez Musharaf? What a pathetic waste of time that was. I’ve been in countries where you have to suck up to powerful people or your life is in danger; this isn’t one of them and it is really pathetic watching an American debase themselves as if it was.
d. john
Turbulence,
We reached different conclusions. I thought the Yoo interview was one of Jon’s less than stellar moments, but not the unmitigated disaster you claim.
But then I see this:
“If you look at the Tea Baggers and the only thing you find funny or sad or absurd about them is that they seem to give a shit about politics,”
And think to myself. Wow.
I don’t know where to begin.
Since you never mentioned who you thought was better, I don’t think I can respond.
CaseyL
AlladinsLamp: Many many thanks for the advice. I’ll do as you suggest… if Oscar ever comes out from behind the bed.
mpbruss
Well, to be fair, John Yoo is an extremely intelligent dude, and can probably argue on his feet better than 99% of comedians. And they were arguing about his specific area of competence. He’s absolutely disingenuous, corrupt, and a disgrace to the legal profession, but he’s not stupid.
MikeJ
Casey @25:
I agree, and if Stewart was just viewed as only an entertainer, nobody would give a shit if I thought he sucked. Sadly, too many people think he’s gopod’s gift to libruls, and by that yardstick, he sucks ass.
d. john
mpbruss, lulz and +1
ABL
I thought you had GBCW’d your way out of my threads.
I knew you couldn’t stay away. I’m flattered.
::bats eyelashes::
d. john
@ABL,
what is GBCW?
ABL
@DougJ – he’s the only one out there doing it on a consistent basis, though, isn’t he? that’s what is so frustrating. errrrrybody should be trashing Fox all the time.
@JGabriel – i don’t recall the ACORN apology. i’m glad he did that.
Mark S.
@d. john
Goodbye Cruel World
MikeJ
LMGTFY
And I’d like to add, FYWP, for making me post this twice.
d. john
meh – I can’t keep up with all of the little acronyms these days.
=/
thx. =)
d. john
dude. I don’t like looking up acronyms on google unless I have some context. Especially stuff in Urban Dictionary is wrong half the time.
You know what’s funny?
You actually went through a lot of extra effort just to bitch at me for asking. I sincerely hope the irony of that wasn’t lost on you
Heh
FlipYrWhig
I think Stewart is like Bob Somerby. He wants the news to be serious, and he wants politicians to be serious, and he wants people who _follow_ politics to be serious. He’s basically a technocrat who wants smart people to get in a room and come up with solutions to important problems. If anything, I’d peg him as idealistic, rather than nihilistic.
The Spy Who Loved Me
#62: The reason Stewart might not want to think that they are all craven is because his brother Larry works on Wall Street. Larry is the Chief Operating Officer of the NYSE. That might have something to do with it. Most people don’t like to shit on their family members.
Joe Brown
Wallace spits out the politically loaded word “Obamacare” like it was poison. Why can’t he just say “Affordable Care Act”?
But Stewart is right, you can’t hate Chris Wallace any more you can hate Brian Jennings or Anderson Cooper or George Munchkinopolis.. he’s just a good guy.
OzoneR
and then there are the Italians
OzoneR
If I had a dollar for everytime someone suggested that police should be allowed to crush the testicles of anyone they seem to think maybe committing a crime, or is a minority, I’d have enough money for a real jobs program.
Anne Laurie
First off, I’m assuming Oscar has been neutered, or you wouldn’t be letting him outside, right? Because neutered cats will still fight over territory, but not usually as much.
Second, if there is any chance it’s racoons he’s tangling with, you DO NOT want him out there! Even if he’s been immunized for rabies, you haven’t, and yes there have been cases where someone contracted rabies from infected spittle entering an open wound on their hand. And if you are trying to clean a cat’s injuries, you are liable to acquire an open wound or two, even with the gentlest housepet. The least that will happen, if your vet ever decides Oscar may have tangled with a rabid wild animal, is that you’ll be dealing with your local Bureau of Wildlife officials & looking at an expensive medical-isolation vet boarding bill. Depending on your state/city, there may be various fines appended for you, and/or “confiscation” — i.e., euthanasia — for Oscar.
Best solution for both of you would be to find ways for Oscar to entertain himself inside. Werebear’s Way of Cats blog is a great resource for this. Simplest long-term sure-fire cat entertainment, of course, would be to bring Oscar home a kitten of his very own — or two, even — but not everybody has the resources or the rental agreement to make that do-able.
billgerat
I like how Red State claims Wallace schooled Stewart.
http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/06/19/chris-wallace-schools-jon-stewart/
Mike E
Or how righties thought Colbert was secretly like them.
It really is all in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it?
amk
The take away for the pox news viewers – media has a liberal bias. Thanks Jon.
Hill Dweller
Colbert is a better interviewer, IMO. A lot of guests get thrown by his “character”, but occasionally he will drop it and decimate his guest. Grover Norquist, Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’souza can certainly attest to that.
Moreover, Colbert’s performance at the White House Correspondent’s dinner took more balls than anything Stewart has ever dreamed of doing.
Red State is just doing their best to prove Stewart right. The right wing lives in an alternate universe.
Hill Dweller
Did Stewart actually say the media had a liberal bias? I keep reading that claim in the comments section of other blogs, but considering the other crazy shit they tend to believe, I’m skeptical.
Yutsano
Sort of. What Stewart said was that the media tended to have more liberals involved because of their life experiences. I could see that getting twisted into “ALL MEDIAZ IS LIBRUL!!” though.
Cliff in NH
Sometimes the guest f’n blows it Big Time because of his “character”
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/230578/june-15-2009/austan-goolsbee
Hill Dweller
I don’t care if there are plenty of liberals in journalism, the media(television especially) is scared to death to do anything but internalize the right wing’s narratives. In fact, it seems their go-to strategy is punching hippies.
Cliff in NH
I blame the RANsquawk morning update for distracting me mid edit….
watch the first Goolsbee interview in the prior post, then the one Over a year later:
Monday, June 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 13, 2010:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/362048/october-13-2010/austan-goolsbee
Anne Laurie
Way it looks to me — and I will no doubt be flamed six ways from Sunday for saying this — is that some blogs tend to have a sarcastic sawdust-on-the-barroom-floor attitude where every new commentor / front-pager gets greeted with variations on “Who are you, and why should we give a flying fvck about your so-called opinions, noob?” That was the (perceived, and not just by me) Balloon Juice aura when I started commenting. When Cole promoted me to the front page, I was greeted — as I fully expected — with a hail of virtual rotten tomatoes & stink bombs, ranging from the fairly entertaining to the merely abusive. Every new FPer got The BJ Experience… from being called one of DougJ’s (less successful) sockpuppets to loud “Cole, why do you allow pixels to be wasted by the discussion of Not-Serious Fribble like abortion/local elections/soccer? ! ? This is neither the time nor the place for such things!” Pushed hard enough, Cole would tell the haterz to take a long walk on a short pier, or (rarely) give the grossest trolls a temporary timeout.
Other blogs… first & foremost among them, in my experience, being the Dread
PirateFireDogLake… espouse the consciousness-raising-circle ethos where every participant mustget a trophybe greeted with a warm, non-judgemental, open-hearted spirit of affirmation. (Except, of course, for Our Enemies.) A mere failure of the first twenty-leven commentors on every post to start with “Welcome, friend! It is so empowering to have such a source of cogent & witty ideas sharing with us here!” can be perceived, by those used to such a blog-style, as a form of personal attack (if one ‘ignores‘, it must be an attempt to disempower the speaker’s voice). Actual disagreement, much less bog-standard BJ sarcasmismo, becomes a violation of the Geneva Conventions — and leads to a cry for Cole to perma-ban “those trolls” who are “spoiling everyone’s experience”.People used to this latter style of blogging tend to have a personal circle — unsympathetic individuals might call it a claque — of internet friends who can be relied upon to support their ideas and reinforce their messaging. When someone of this blogging philosophy becomes a front-pager, their travelling
hallelujah chorusfriendship group will make every effort to inculcate other commentors with their right-minded habits & attitudes, while shouting down even the mildest scepticism (much less disagreement). Of course, someone most comfortable with the Sharing-Circle school of blogging probably will not find such efforts sufficient. The strong-minded will find time to personally single out and “rebut” (attack) every less-than-laudatory response; those of flabbier moral fibre will mix their “you are being deliberately unsympathetic, probably because you are not smart enough to understand my subtle arguments” posts with Good-Bye Cruel World (GBCW) threats to stop posting, or to take their brilliance elsewhere on the internet. Such GBCW posts can be counted upon to encourage their supporters to redouble their efforts at forcing “the enemy” off the blog, as well as requiring previously non-involved commentors to chime in with some form of “No, please don’t go, it’s no bother and the carpet needed cleaning anyway”… which provides the proof (as far as the members of the Sharing Circle are concerned) that their Speaker is totally correct, and extremely perceptive as well.Shorter me: I blame E.D. Kain for starting this shitestorm in the first place.
Cliff in NH
Oh and I almost forgot, he came on again
May 18, 2011 – Austan Goolsbee
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/386857/may-18-2011/exclusive—austan-goolsbee-extended-interview-pt–1
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/386858/may-18-2011/exclusive—austan-goolsbee-extended-interview-pt–2
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/386859/may-18-2011/exclusive—austan-goolsbee-extended-interview-pt–3
Cliff in NH
@Anne Laurie Keep throwing truth @ trolls It’s Quite effective.
Steeplejack
@CaseyL:
Is Oscar fixed? If not, get that taken care of right away. It will cut way down on the fighting.
Cliff in NH
@Hill Dweller
The personalities and writers are liberals, their Bosses are ReThuglicans? Looks that way to me…
Who can fire you? the public? Or your Boss?
Cliff in NH
slightly_peeved
The Crossfire interview could not be any more different from the phenomenon you describe here. He was talking to two established media types – the “cool kids” if you will. His explicit problem with what they were doing was that it wasn’t taking politics seriously enough; that their show had a liberal and a conservative shouting at each other without any attempt to present facts or come to any form of agreement.
This is a guy who booked a constitutional expert for his show specifically to refute the points of the previous so-called constitutional expert who appeared on his show. How often does any journalist anywhere do that?
He’s hit or miss, but then he’s a stand-up comedian trying to do a news show that bases its commentary of some notion of reasoned judgement, rather than a political line. As you’d expect, that still leaves him on the Democratic side of the argument almost all of the time. If he did a show where a Republican Congressperson got laid out by a linebacker every week, he’d get less wrong, and I’d sure as fuck watch it, but it wouldn’t change anyone’s mind.
Chris T.
Jon Stewart is a comedian. On his show, he does things that are funny.
He also happens to have more actual news on his comedy show than the “news” programs have on their shows. But if person A’s job is to dig up dirt, and person B’s job is to to point and laugh, whose fault is it when person B digs up more dirt (then laughs at it) than person A? Someone is not doing his job here, but it’s not person B.
Moonbatman
I love when John Stewart uses his general YOU ARE INSANE dismissal against the wingnuts like he did with Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism.
They are not worth getting the Daily show writers together to craft a more clever response.
I would love to see the butthurt if the Daily Show released the full unedited Jonah Goldberg interview instead of the hacked up “choppy as hell” one they broadcasted?
Peace Out. The Power is Yours. Free Crystal Mangum
d. john
@Anne Laurie:
Thanks for your in depth response. Some of what you said was obvious, but much was insightful…
And your shorter was great too… thank you for the B J history lesson, I lurk frequently, but only binge post over a couple day period occasionally. So I’m probably not as tuned in to the day to day – esp since I’ve been skipping over the comments a lot lately when I’m in lurk mode. I found what you wrote to be very informative. Thank you. =)
@Moonbatman: thanks for the link.
An interview between that idiot Goldberg (liberal fascism, indeed! hah) and Jon Stewart should prove extremely entertaining… I already bookmarked it, heh
Cheers!
pluege
is it just me or did wallace just admit that fux nuz is biased, as in “I think our viewers think finally they’re getting someone who tells the other side of the story.”. Heretofore, I understood the argument to be that news was supposed to be just the facts (never the case with fux nuz of course, but also never admitted to before.)
So were is all the “liberal media” jumping up and down about this? Or is it so common and patently obvious that fux nuz is heavily right wing biased that everybody just yawns about it.
lou
@Turbulence
I’m with Stewart on this one. I cringe whenever the Code Pinkers show up at Congressional hearings. It doesn’t help your cause to scream at people and act out. It makes you — and thus your cause — look insane. or at least rude.
Yeah, he’s done some false equivalency. But some of his digs are fair. And at least liberals, unlike conservatives, can — and should — concede weaknesses. Or we’re no better than the tea partyers, who march in lock-step.
El Cid
What Code Pink is doing is not what the TeaTards are doing.
What they are about is utterly and completely different.
The questions of (a) whether or not what they do is effective in supporting their goals (in an incomplete non-survey, I feel ‘no’), or (b) whether or not some other person would interpret their actions the same aren’t the questions I have to focus on.
Whether these groups or other, it’s not incumbent upon me to evaluate the meaning of any individual’s or group’s goals in terms of how someone else might perceive their actions or how effective or even harmful their actions are for their goals.
We know this. It’s not complicated.
You could have a bunch of screaming young people wearing mascot outfits against, say, the use of fossil fuels due to their causing of global warming, and carrying out some sorts of actions which totally undermine their cause in the public.
And you could have a bunch of sober, acceptable, logical looking folk who seem to have some success in trying to destroy all environmental and industrial regulations as well as any act possible to increase the use of fossil fuels.
And the groups aren’t the same. The first group really is about something different than the second.
It is. It is whether or not it would appear that way to my neighbor or to every single other American than me.
If it’s all about style and effectiveness, then we need disregard the subject matter of what people aim for altogether, because who cares?
I know, I know, this will merit a response of how I’m all about undermining this that and the other and how I don’t understand something like how the actions of late 19th and early 20th century anarchists prompted the most brute repression and infamy for what was for many an ideology of democracy and liberation. I do.
Even if two groups are pursuing nasty goals, it still matters what their aims are.
Because intellectual grasp is not the same as endorsement.
MBunge
Even if two groups are pursuing nasty goals, it still matters what their aims are.
And what has Code Pink accomplished in regards to its aims? What politicians have their actions defeated or elected? What legislation have they gotten enacted or defeated? Do people today really not know the expression “The ends do not justify the means”?
Mike
LanceThruster
My xian sister foxtard misrepresents the argument this way –
“Stop telling me I don’t have a right to my opinion.” –
which totally leapfrogs my point as I’m not telling her she has no right, I’m telling her that what she thinks she knows is wrong.
DFH no.6
And here I was thinking that one of the bright spots in the usual BJ commentary – particularly in light of d. john’s musing’s on this thread regarding trolls and noise and such at 73, which were ably answered by Annie Laurie at 104 – was that no one (as far as I can tell) had ever bothered to engage the tiresome nitwit troll Moonbatman.
The fool’s blatherings would occasionally fall there, like fresh stinking turds in the pathway, and everyone seemed to understand implicitly that it was best to simply step over the shit like it wasn’t there and walk on by.
A very small thing, to be sure – a brownshirt asswipe troll not being fed on the internets. But so sweet and refreshing.
And then d. john just had to blow it, at 113.
Thanks for nothing, dude!
JGabriel
Sharl:
Thanks for finding that, Sharl. That is the clip I had in mind.
ABL:
Well, Sharl’s right. It was less an apology, and more just a jokey acknowledgement of being wrong. Better than than nothing, though.
.
d. john
@DFH,
sorry to dissappoint.
I didn’t have my prepared list of trolls beamed to me by the B J thought police.
I guess I need to adjust my foil hat.
Bender
Even Politifact said that Stewart was wrong about Fox News.