Wednesday, December 29, 2010

As Reasonable As Hell



No country for old menches.

To achieve his highest purpose (From the NYT):

In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow

By BILL CARTER and BRIAN STELTER
Published: December 26, 2010

...
Though the scale of the impact of Mr. Stewart’s telecast on public policy may not measure up to the roles that Mr. Murrow and Mr. Cronkite played, Mr. Thompson said, the comparison is legitimate because the law almost surely would not have moved forward without him. “He so pithily articulated the argument that once it was made, it was really hard to do anything else,” Mr. Thompson said.

The Dec. 16 show focused on two targets. One was the Republicans who were blocking the bill; Mr. Stewart, in a clear effort to shame them for hypocrisy, accused them of belonging to “the party that turned 9/11 into a catchphrase.” The other was the broadcast networks (one of them being CBS, the former home of Mr. Murrow and Mr. Cronkite), which, he charged, had not reported on the bill for more than two months.

“Though, to be fair,” Mr. Stewart said, “it’s not every day that Beatles songs come to iTunes.” (Each of the network newscasts had covered the story of the deal between the Beatles and Apple for their music catalog.) Each network subsequently covered the progress of the bill, sometimes citing Mr. Stewart by name. The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, credited Mr. Stewart with raising awareness of the Republican blockade.

Eric Ortner, a former ABC News senior producer who worked as a medic at the World Trade Center site on 9/11, expressed dismay that Mr. Stewart had been virtually alone in expressing outrage early on.

“In just nine months’ time, my skilled colleagues will be jockeying to outdo one another on 10th anniversary coverage” of the attacks, Mr. Ortner wrote in an e-mail. “It’s when the press was needed most, when sunlight truly could disinfect,” he said, that the news networks were not there.
...



Jon Stewart had to put one of his core principles out of its misery like a Downer cow (from Salon)

As Stewart persuasively argued, "We've all bought into the idea that the conflict in the country is left and right, Republicans and Democrats." Furthermore, an insidious, attention-grabbing news media "amplifies a division that I don’t think is the right fight ... [because] both sides have their way of shutting down debate."

"It's become tribal," he declared, and the major culprits aren't Tea Partying loons -- they're the CNNs and Foxes and, yes, MSNBCs of the world. "The problem with a 24-hour news cycle is it's built for a particular thing -- 9/11," he explained, noting sagely that "O.J.'s not going to kill someone every day." Meanwhile, "The real conflict is corruption vs. non-corruption, extremists vs. non-extremists."

The Maddow interview was a stunning example of the increasing greatness of Stewart, a man who, unlike every faux or ostensibly real cable news pontificator out there not named Anderson Cooper, is distinguished by his compassion-rich lack of objectivity. Other pundits may have opinions and stances galore, but few possess Stewart's fearless embrace of that oft-overlooked essential quality -- empathy.
...

He was at times maddeningly indulgent, granting reasonable doubt to George Bush for our ongoing nightmare in Iraq and Afghanistan by asking, "What is their intention? Is it to save American lives?" He questioned how helpful it is "if the place you start is 'he’s an evil man who lied to us' ... I do think he believes Sadaam was dangerous." And he told liberal America, to its intense discomfort, "You have to examine your own orthodoxy."

Jon's problem is that, for all of his formidable comedic and observational skills, he is still in an almost catatonic denial about the country in which he lives. He obviously, deeply wants us to be something more than we are. Something better than we are. A place where people with different but sincere and well-reasoned beliefs can fight hard, come together afterward to figure out a good-enough compromise, and then move on to the next thing.

You know who else wants that? Every fucking Liberal I know.

But this simply is not that country: not some feisty middle-brow Camelot with a couple of equally wacky, equally flawed and equally honorable political philosophies contending in an arena with rules and referees. Instead, this is a country where one political party is ruled by loathesome men with grotesque motives on behalf of a tiny clique of plutocrats and bulwarked by an electoral army which is kept constantly tweaked to the point of near-riot by a carefully-cultivated media cocktail of rage, ignorance, bigotry and God.

What Jon cannot face is that he will never have the country he wants -- that we all want -- by clevering and cajoling and joking and reasoning it into existence.

We've tried that for the last 30 years.

Facts bounce off these people.

Reason. Does. Not. Work.

What Jon Stewart seems unwilling to face squarely is the simple fact that this nation cannot endure permanently half-Fox and half-free. And that for the nation he wants-us-to-be to stand any chance of rising up out of the rubble of what-we-are, the Right as it is constituted today will have to be electorally and culturally destroyed, root and branch.

In the face of the absolute depravity of the Right and the absolute cowardice of the Villager Center, Jon Stewart showed remarkable courage by the simple act of telling the truth on teevee.

But that's the problem, Jon.

The world you want will never, ever come until you take on Capone.


And that means taking sides.

18 comments:

Denny Smith said...

The gig is up. The people with the bullhorns all sing the same song.
An ignorant public can know no better under such circumstances.
The question of the hour seems to be this:
Are we too far along in the decline to force a reversal?

I think the answer to that lies in the answer to this: How terminally stupid are we? I mean, really, how dumb do we have to be to lose the nation? Have we reached that point?

Malacandra said...

Denny,

As Frank Zappa said: "It's not getting any smarter out there, folks".

The Fool said...

As usual, Driftglass hits the nail squarely on the head.

I love Stewart and think he is a comic genius but his political analysis is sorely lacking in exactly the way Driftglass describes.

Don't shoot poor Driftglass, Jon. He's just the messenger.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing stopping the Executive Branch from "raising awareness" of issues such as the 9-11 responders health care, but for whatever lame reason they were and are too cautious to do it. There are several more issues that Stewart and others need to lead the way on. But if a (liberal) pundit "takes sides," the Village will instantly dismiss them. That's the game. Oh, we already know what those hippies think, so we're cutting their mic.

The Daily Show has too much power for the Villagers to dismiss it outright, or they would do it in a NY minute. TDS should do a week-long series of shows to discuss just how corrupt the swindlers in the "Financial Industry" are. Bring on Matt Taibbi for some in-depth public shaming.

We're quickly becoming the United States of Pottersville, and sadly the government and the corporate MSM seem hopelessly out of their depth in addressing it, assuming they wanted to.
(ok)

Rehctaw said...

"Help us Obi Jon, you're our only hope?"

I think Stewart's potential power scares the shit out of him. Imagine if he decided to harness it rather than sit behind his spitball desk.

He doesn't want to be the man. He wants all of us to be the man. He wants the bunch who begged us for the big chairs to do their fucking jobs.

One of his biggest fears has to be that someone will mimic his schtick and "reluctantly" volunteer to lead.

Never forget.

darkblack said...

Stewart's a funny fellow being cast in a serious role, and an idealist to boot. Bad combination.

He's too soft for this game. The other team will share an unfunny joke while they hang his ilk up on the hook, but who'll be laughing then?

;>)

doorworker said...

Jeezis, that's beautiful stuff:
"But this simply is not that country: not some feisty middle-brow Camelot with a couple of equally wacky, equally flawed and equally honorable political philosophies contending in an arena with rules and referees. Instead, this is a country where one political party is ruled by loathesome men with grotesque motives on behalf of a tiny clique of plutocrats and bulwarked by an electoral army which is kept constantly tweaked to the point of near-riot by a carefully-cultivated media cocktail of rage, ignorance, bigotry and God."

In a muthafuckin' nutshell. Sad sad sad to say.

And let it never be forgot that the hyper-comfortable Stewart clan, day in, day out, never comes within 20 miles (at least) of the Bitters, the 'orthogonian' folks for whom all this will be a bitter betrayal and wasted investment of evergy if the yet-to-be-subilmated fascistic caudillo figure isn't allowed to ride into power and kick the living shit out of the 'Merkin infidels.

Anonymous said...

"which, he charged, had not reported on the bill for more than two months."

Look at that lazy he-said bullcrap from the NYT. That statement isn't about mermaids. It's about something which a journalist can sit down and verify, then report the charge as either true or false.

moorespeed said...

"Larry Leibowitz, COO of the NYSE and brother of comedian, Jon Stewart..." It's hard to go after Capone when he's a member of your own family.

someofparts said...

Thank you. You say what I feel and think better than I can myself.

Anonymous said...

The false equivalency between Rachel Maddow and bombastic liars like Hannity drives me nuts.

Habitat Vic said...

Moorespeed,

I had heard somewhere that Stewart's brother worked on Wall Street, but COO of the NYSE? Yowza.

On a Wall Street-related note, Obama's takeaway after his CEO roundtable is to consider a tax repatriation "holiday" for the $1,000B+ in profits that F500 have stashed in overseas subsidiaries/accounts/etc. Bush did this one time at a 5% rate in 2004, and the CEOs want another 5% chance at tax "forgiveness", rather than the normal 35% rate they legally should pay. That's a $300B giveaway. Yes, three hundred - fucking - billion. Barely a mention in the press.

What a shit year coming up.

Taylor Wray said...

Interesting comment by moorespeed - didn't know Jon Stewart was so closely related to Wall Street.

Well said, Driftglass, but I'm not sure if there is a side that Stewart can take. Republicans and Democrats at the top both suck.

Sure, Republicans are worse, but Dems have drank just as much Wall Street kool-aid and are "supporting the troops" just as much, so they share a good amount of the culpability.


I'm more frustrated with Stewart's "calm down and be reasonable" message. If anything, he's the anti-Murrow. He gets himself all worked up about corruption and idiocy in government and then stages a rally to essentially tell the country to take the fervor down a notch. If anything, liberals need to get mad as hell, to the point where we are not going to take this anymore.

Bill Ockham said...

If Jon Stewart wants to be The Centre then that's cool with me. Some folks think that the centre has moved waaaaay over to the right. I say we nail it to Jon Stewart. We can carry on being the lefties we are, he can carry on with his Mr Reasonable shtick and everyone to the right of the Daily Show writing staff gets our collective abuse.

Batocchio said...

Great pic, and very nicely put, DG. (And as usual, you're reminding me of posts I need to finish, curse you!)

prof fate said...

[Stewart granted] reasonable doubt to George Bush for our ongoing nightmare in Iraq and Afghanistan by asking, "What is their intention? Is it to save American lives?"

Oh, fuck that! Maybe it does matter in some abstract moral sense whether Junior deliberately set fire to the neighbor's house because he believed their basement was infested with CHUDs and not because he thinks flames are pretty, but the results are still the same!

And the question itself hardly exists in a vacuum. Even if you ignore all the evidence of deliberate deception and gross malfeasance preceding the Global War on Anyone Who Looks at Us Cross-Eyed, their subsequent conduct should have forever put an end to the question: "Evil, or stupid?" with an emphatic "Both!"

There are times when Stewart really is an insufferable idiot.

Katharine said...

Jon Stewart is saying the same kinds of things I thought before it hit me hard enough that most human beings, especially most human beings in America, make a fucking bacterium look like Einstein, whether they're liberal or conservative. The conservatives are just worse than the liberals, but that vast majority right there hasn't even come down from the trees.

I mostly put up with it nowadays by being a combative, surly, reclusive asshole and keeping them all at arm's length.

Anonymous said...

"this is a country where one political party is ruled by loathesome men with grotesque motives..."

What a great rant, and one I'm saving. For the past few years, and for fun, I have been keeping a file on conservatives and governing. Mostly of comments just like this. It's fairly long file, and this one is going into it. One of the best is by Noam Scheiber writing in the New Republic in December of 2002:

"...movement conservatives have a genuinely coherent worldview they want to see reflected - in its entirety. ... Movement conservatives like Gary Bauer, on the other hand, by definition aren't satisfied to simply see the Chemical Weapons Convention defeated or see a ban on partial-birth abortions. Losing on any issue is enough to rouse their anger."

Another:
"White House aides have developed a strategy for filling a future vacancy on the Supreme Court that calls for nominating an ideological conservative even if it increases the chance that the person would not be confirmed, administration officials said." Washington Post, 19 Jan 2003.

And, of course, the late Molly Ivins:
"Carl Parker of Port Arthur used to say, "If you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it would not be a representative body anymore." When one confronts such people with facts - such as that free education was established in the United States long before there was ever a Communist revolution in Russia, or that people in South Texas speak English quite fluently (some of them are even college graduates) - it does no good. These folks are not stupid, they're like members of some weird cult. You can't dent their worldview with reality. It's like trying to talk to the people who followed David Koresh."

A.J.