If John Stewart wasted a great opportunity, then why the huge buzz?

[trumad]

I'll tell you why....because it hit a nerve that hasn't been hit by anybody. Bother with the semantics of his appearance all you want, but look around and you will see it galvanized a whole bunch of people and it will most certainly have an impact.

A waisted opportunity I think not.

[K8-EEE]

1. He Was GREAT And I Was Glad To See Him Say..

"you're THIRTY FIVE YEARS OLD...and you're wearing A BOWTIE...this is theater."

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jonnyblitz]

5. I think Trumad already read your silly post

and this thread is his response...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. Your post in the other thread was DEFINITELY contrarian...

...instead of being overjoyed that Stewart took advantage of the opportunity that he had, you felt compelled to to discuss what he shoulda, coulda, woulda done IF he had been in the situation you described.

And I beg to differ...it was MORE than the exchange that got everyone's attention, it was the MESSAGE that was delivered to the NEWS MEDIA, not just Crossfire. And IMHO, Stewart delivered that message with great passion and downright anger.

Hooray for Jon, and a major BOOO for the armchair critics that couldn't BUY their way onto a show like Crossfire, much less have a show of their own.

[Lefty48197]

3. I don't see any possible way that Jon Stewart

could have played his cards any better. He was awesome.

[Paxdora]

11. He WAS awesome!

He's now my number one contemporary hero, beating Oprah (and THAT'S a great feat)!



My Hero!

[TheFarseer]

4. Not a chance

that appearance had the maximum impact it could possibly have. If he just tells funny jokes no one really cares but this actually has a chance to start something big.

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

6. JS is a master of pointing out the absurd

and the truth.

He was so right to call out Crossfire, and the whole media for having on people they know are liars, and will say anything in the short term to justify winning in the long term. they add nothing to the discourse and encourage a turned off, tuned out, confused population.

I really liked when he called Tucker a dick.

[Philostopher]

7. I'm sure he thought about it at least some.

The guy's not exactly a tyro -- he's been at this a while, and in the past couple of years he's been on all the talk shows. I saw a clip of him on one of the cable shows that doesn't pretend to be anything but a live action 'People Magazine' -- I think it was Larry King -- about a month ago where he said this same thing, except of course he didn't blame Larry, since Larry doesn't pretend his show is a news show, he knows it's a schmooze-fest. Jon said then it was pathetic that a show that lampoons the news actually reported more news, and reported it more accurately, than shows that took themselves seriously as information sources. I think Jon had a defining moment when he won the Peabody Award -- 'I'm a former stand-up comic who's doing a news show lampoon and I'm winning awards intended for news organizations ... and I've been given an honorary degree from the school of journalism at my old college ... holy sh*t, what world am I living in?'

Let's hope he gave some others courage to criticize. I doubt he'll cause any self-examination in the talking heads, but perhaps the shows' producers or sponsors will sit back and think about it, see how the criticism he's been making plays, and consider whether there's a demand for change, and whether they can sell it. If they think it'll sell, maybe it'll happen. If they don't, of course it won't happen -- they're all about $$$.

On edit: Just watched the actual tape, I had only read a transcript -- I definitely think Jon had an agenda and knew what he was saying, right up to calling Tucker a dick. He knew, he had his 'talking points' and the audience (as someone said yesterday) received them well. Carlson looked like a pud.

[Maiden England]

8. It was the perfect opportunity

Could he have outed another media hack, on a show, such as Wolf Blitzer, et al. Sure, but the slots he would get would be a mere 5 mins if that. Not much time to get your point across and easy to cut to something else, if the director wanted, for sure. Even a slot on Letterman doesn't last more than a few minutes.
He knew he had Crossfire for a good quarter of an hour. He knew he would be their only guest. He knew exactly what he was doing. He's a smart cookie that Jon Stewart.

[henslee]

9. I was watching with three seniors. They always knew of him in a

peripheral way -- that he was a TV personality and a funnyman. When they saw what traspired, they lit up. He busted through that media filter... someone used to talk about.

[Nlighten1]

12. Jon Stewart didn't waste an opportunity....

He went on the show and called them out. Hopefully this is the beginning of more liberal activist coming forward and demanding that the media protect the public interest.