digby on Jon Stewart's handling of Wisconsin

Bizarro Tea Party?

by digby

I'm sure you were just dying for some old fashioned he said/she said punditry on Wisconsin so look no further than Jon Stewart, who is now in the process of becoming an iconic representative of the genre. It started off well, calling out the Governor on his union breaking goals. But then he turned on the Democratic Senators implying that they were being wimps instead of strategists playing for time and proceeded to denigrate the protesters as fools, taking them and the media to task for comparing these silly hippie protests with the Egyptian uprising. (Nobody's been killed fergawdsake!) He finally took Rick Santelli to task for comparing it to 9/11 after which he went after MSNBC and Fox for being hypocrites etc, etc, etc., ending up calling the Wisconsin protests the Bizarro Tea Party.

SNIP........


Calls for"civility"are usually just a way to shut people up and sadly, I'm fairly sure that the only people who listen to Stewart are liberals who are getting the idea that it's wrong to get in the streets or call out the other side in rough language. Conservatives just think he's a useful idiot. I find this attitude very perplexing coming from a comedian, especially one who commonly does things which could be perceived as unfair, silly and undignified.

This is why Colbert's satire is so much more effective and, frankly, much braver.

Watch how Steven handles Wisconsin here:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/375040/february-22-2011/a-less-perfect-union



You can even watch the daily show clips at her website and see her point.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/church-lady-says-wi-protesters-are.html

he interviewed Randi Weingarten the president of the American Federation of Teacher and then even continued his coverage of Wisconsin and then interview Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach

Stewart's handling of it was a bad joke and disingenuous.

But, he's not really on our side.

.

He supported Nader in 2000, what the hell was he thinking?

As Nader is of the progressive sort. Bashing Dems/protestors for what would be Naders ideas (and fighting for them) is just raw opportunism. He sees something he can take a cheap shot at, and he does it. It doesn't matter if it hurts justice or fairness
He always likes to say journalists are 'hurting' the public, when he hurts that very same cause as well.

on his call on 'the crazy right and crazy left' also comparing
Keith Olberman to Glenn Beck.

The Stewart fanboi's won't see it, but everyone else does.

It is wicked cool, as they say in Boston.

were the funniest bits. Now, they seldom show up. And when they do, the bits are poorly written. Daily Show has become like SNL, only another launching pad for something else. Stewart has become the focus of the show and he ain't Colbert.

How stupid was that?

1. Madison is not in North Dakota.
2. Wisconsin has already invaded Iraq.

I find his arguments nebulous and, recently, just aimed at "play nice". But at least he will have DONALD RUMSFELD on tonight! I'm sure Jon will put him under citizen's arrest.

Jon will give Rummy some superficial hazing, then proceed to give him a public BJ.

for War Crimes..... he should do a citizen's arrest on his ass.
Yes, you are probably right about the interview.


Justice drops defense of Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz


By JOSH GERSTEIN | 2/22/11 5:09 PM EST

The Justice Department under President Barack Obama has quietly dropped its legal representation of more than a dozen Bush-era Pentagon and administration officials - including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and aide Paul Wolfowitz - in a lawsuit by Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla, who spent years behind bars without charges in conditions his lawyers compare to torture.

now I am becoming a proud member of the Colbert Nation. Stewart seems to be wanting to play nice and get along, Colbert isn't pulling any punches and doesn't back down. I'm glad for it too.

False equivalence between FOX bashing these protests and embracing the Tea Party protests and MSNBC bashing the Tea Party protests and embracing the union protests.



Stewart glosses over the fact that the Tea Parties are astroturf completely funded by corporations, while these protests are real grassroots. This is a critical distinction.

Camels don't do well on ice and snow
and kept falling down and hurting itself.

Its on youtube and its painful to watch.
I think They canceled the skit.. thought it would be funny to bring
a camel to Madison.

Yeah, it was painful to watch.

I think it'd be fun for Stewart and Schultz to get in a room and hash this out.