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Stewart Skewers Fox News Hypocrisy in Stumping for Trump

A CNN/ORC instapoll found 75% of viewers reacted positively to Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Jon Stewart was part of the other 25%. The quasi-retired comedian resurrected his news-skewer routine brilliantly on Stephen Colbert’s show last night and offered this apt summary of the Republican National Convention:

I thought Donald Trump was going to speak. Ivanka said that he was going to come out. She said he was really compassionate and generous, but then this angry groundhog came out and he just vomited on everybody for an hour. But the Republicans appear to have a very clear plan for America, and they’ve articulated it throughout the convention. One, jail your political opponent. Two, inject Rudy Giuliani with a speedball and Red Bull enema. And then, three, spend the rest of the time scaring the holy bejeezus out of everybody [Jon Stewart, as transcribed on Media Matters, 2016.07.22].

Donald Trump just rants for his own ego and power. Jon Stewart rants brilliantly, intelligently, developing a point, and for the sake of democracy and liberty (words the Republican nominee did not use in his acceptance speech) and truth (a word Trump used once and followed immediately with a Pants-on-Fire lie). Show us how it’s done, Mr. Stewart.

Maybe Hillary Clinton should replace Tim Kaine with Jon Stewart for VP. That would crush Trump’s convention bump immediately and bring every young Bernie voter on board.

16 Comments

  1. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-22 16:50

    The Atlantic, on Stewart’s comedic and commentarial skill:

    Stewart flaunted his ability to take the long view on political rhetoric, to compare punditry from nearly a decade ago to today. It’s an accountability and information mission that’s perhaps been too neglected lately [Spencer Kornhaber, “Jon Stewart’s Well-Timed Comeback,” The Atlantic, 2016.07.22].

    Stewart’s use of other texts, essentially blockquotes on video from Fox News and other sources he critiques, to hold politicians and media figures accountable fits with what I said yesterday about that Sioux Falls paper’s balking at letting letter writers quote and link other sources. Stewart’s brilliance and importance lies in his ability to ground his rants in the source material that moves his assaults on hypocrisy from assertion to blatant, undeniable fact.

  2. leslie 2016-07-22 17:03

    yup. republicans “shoot” the messenger. sorry

  3. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-22 17:52

    Nice classic piece by Colbert and Stewart, it was indeed epic.

    Moral of the story:
    Be careful what you say, it can comeback and bite you in the ass 8 years later.

  4. jerry 2016-07-22 18:24

    So clearly the idea is to do to Clinton what the republicans do whenever there is a Democrat in office, they delegitimize their position of the highest office in the land. The sin and disgrace of republican leadership and their rank and file regarding the treatment of the first black president, was profound. The outright racism without any kind of fear of retribution, still remains as the root cause of the racial tensions that finally reached a head with the murders of black citizens for the crime of being unarmed and black. Republicans are the biggest frauds in all respects, but when they try to lay claim on being for democracy, that is as incorrect as it gets. They hate democracy, they hate it with a passion. It is all about the money along with white privilege. The republicans have their man now, he is their face and voice. True to the cause, a billionaire that is clueless on how a democracy works. Stewart nails them to their phony cross, funny, but such a sad commentary on who we are supposed to be. We can only hope that the republican base stays the course and that thinking republicans abandon this rudderless ship of hate for better ports.

  5. leslie 2016-07-22 19:35

    How ‘Lock Her Up!’ Became a Mainstream GOP Rallying Cry

    How ‘Lock Her Up!’ Became a Mainstream GOP Rallying Cry

    Republicans at their convention this week have fully embraced the wing-nut caricaturization of Hillary Clinton

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics

  6. Douglas Wiken 2016-07-22 20:19

    Don’t skip reading Jerry’s Wash Post link.

    Added to the list of reasons Trump would not be a good President were comments I heard yesterday from the actual writer of THE ART OF THE DEAL who said Trump does not have the patience to be a President. He can’t concentrate for more than a few minutes on anything. He is also characterized as making “gut decisions” by the last TIME article on him. These are not the characteristics for a good presidency or even safe world. I like perhaps millions of Americans agree with a few of the things he says, but he says so many other nearly crazy things and behaves like such a boor (or boar) take your pick depending on situation.

  7. jerry 2016-07-22 21:14

    As noted M. Wiken, Trump is the republican trauma that has ADHD. How much Ritalin is the correct dose? Only two cent Mike knows for sure.

  8. Steve Hickey 2016-07-23 04:05

    Usually I love Stewart. Here I lost interest at 7min30. Did it get better?

  9. jerry 2016-07-23 07:12

    There is a reason that republicans like yourself loose interest when you hear the facts, you simply cannot handle the truth. See, it works like this, Frank Luntz, your wordsmith, comes up with a catch phrase. It attracts you folks like a dying rabbit call that is used on coyotes to lure them into range. The simpler the sound is, the better you and yours are attracted to it. Stewart’s words are the weapons that bring you and yours to your senses. That would explain why you did not care for what he was saying. He is telling you that your boy and his ideas are poisoning this country with more class divisions, more misery for the working poor, more hate towards religions that are not WASP in nature. More hate, more theft, you know, the things that make your party what it has become. You are an intricate part of it Mr. Hickey. You can go to the ends of the earth, but that will not change the fact that you have no use for the working poor and needy of this state. Your ideology of hate denies them the dignity or having healthcare with the Medicaid Expansion. Even when proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it would not only give them life, it would also breathe life into making the state itself healthier with revenue. I am sure Hannity and the rest of the Fox talkers will soothe your disappointment with their Benediction on how it all should be for you.

  10. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-23 12:03

    There are a lot of republicans that don’t understand Stewart’s special brand of humor, they simply don’t have the intellect to appreciate him

  11. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-24 10:17

    Steve: yes. Stewart started good and ended great.

  12. Caroline 2016-07-25 17:43

    Colbert and Stewart make me proud to be an American. They serve to give me a morale boost when I need it most. When it seems that all is lost, they are able to remind me about the real principles this country was founded on and make me believe that all is not yet lost. Thank you Cory for your tireless search for truth and reason, as well as providing this format for debate.

  13. Leo 2016-07-25 19:23

    Brilliant Caroline! Thanks for bringing us back to this post!

  14. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-26 16:47

    Funny, Caroline, where we can find inspiration nowadays. I wonder: did Johnny Carson ever play the role in the culture that late-nighters like Colbert and Stewart can play now?

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