Jon Stewart

[Deleted]

I have never thought that he treated Obama with ugly disdain. That is kinda harsh. I think he was disheartened and disgusted by McCain's actions in the election but always seemed honest about his disillusionment with him.

I always liked that Jon was an equal-opportunity snarker. But it made me laugh when the right would criticize him for some sort of leftist agenda. Jon Stewart is hardly the liberalest liberal who every liberaled.

[chonies]

I found this article about Stewart being critical of the rollout of Healthcare.gov and I remember agreeing with him. Link to WaPo.

I might be mistaken, but I think most of Stewart's criticism of Obama has things I am also critical of or concerned about: Guantanamo, that maybe the Obamacare isn't enough, occasional waffling, drone strikes. For me, it comes from a place of disappointment, but maybe I'm overempathizing.

[twodollars]

Stewart treated Obama with a disdain he never showed for any other major politician. He talked to him like he was a naive boy that needed Stewart to explain things to him. It really bothered me. But, his interview with Kathleen Seibilous after the healthcare.gov failed rolled out was the last straw for me. He talked over her, interrupted her, put words in her mouth and then took a cheap shot at her after the interview was over.

And Stewart's complaints about Obama and his admin have always been a bit naive. He doesn't really seem to work in reality. Obamacare isn't enough but has no idea how to get a better bill passed. He blames Obama for Gitmo not closing when Obama ordered it closed on the first day. His admin put together a plan to close it and transfer some prisoners here and Congress voted 90% to forbid the transfer of prisoners to the U.S. and to not allocate funds to transfer it. So, Obama is to blame for Gitmo not closing when Congress passes legislation that forbids the closure of it and great white liberal saviors like Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders who voted for that legislation are praised? I think there are plenty of valid reasons to criticize Obama (Afganistan troop increase, etc.) but Stewart's list of complaints are just not reality based and in many cases blame Obama for something that is completely out of his control.

[Mutagen]

Feb 13, 2015 15:30:32 GMT -4 twodollars said:

Stewart treated Obama with a disdain he never showed for any other major politician. He talked to him like he was a naive boy that needed Stewart to explain things to him. It really bothered me. But, his interview with Kathleen Seibilous after the healthcare.gov failed rolled out was the last straw for me. He talked over her, interrupted her, put words in her mouth and then took a cheap shot at her after the interview was over.

And Stewart's complaints about Obama and his admin have always been a bit naive. He doesn't really seem to work in reality. Obamacare isn't enough but has no idea how to get a better bill passed. He blames Obama for Gitmo not closing when Obama ordered it closed on the first day. His admin put together a plan to close it and transfer some prisoners here and Congress voted 90% to forbid the transfer of prisoners to the U.S. and to not allocate funds to transfer it. So, Obama is to blame for Gitmo not closing when Congress passes legislation that forbids the closure of it and great white liberal saviors like Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders who voted for that legislation are praised? I think there are plenty of valid reasons to criticize Obama (Afganistan troop increase, etc.) but Stewart's list of complaints are just not reality based and in many cases blame Obama for something that is completely out of his control.

Personally I think Jon's biggest Achilles heel was that he was overly interested in giving the appearance of "I satirize everybody equally."  Which yes - as a satirist you should always aim for the people in power.  But I think he felt an obligation to go as hard on Obama/the Democrats as he went on Bush even when they weren't actually doing anything on the level of the Bush administration. Basically, he/TDS sometimes fell into the trap of the "both sides are equally bad" fallacy. 

[Sunnyhorse]

I don't feel that Jon had it in for Obama, but I will cop to being disappointed by his coverage of the ACA. During those segments I never heard him acknowledge that the GOP was busy doing everything it could to sabotage the law (e.g., making it as hard as possible for the navigators to do their job). There were a few evenings when I found myself yelling at the TV.

[proper stranger]

Feb 13, 2015 15:56:13 GMT -4 Mutagen said:

Personally I think Jon's biggest Achilles heel was that he was overly interested in giving the appearance of "I satirize everybody equally."  Which yes - as a satirist you should always aim for the people in power.  But I think he felt an obligation to go as hard on Obama/the Democrats as he went on Bush even when they weren't actually doing anything on the level of the Bush administration. Basically, he/TDS sometimes fell into the trap of the "both sides are equally bad" fallacy. 

He did the same thing at the rally that he and Colbert did in Washington DC a few years back, creating a false equivalency between the hosts on MSNBC and the outright falsehoods and ridiculousness on Fox News. While some of MSNBC's hosts have some issues, I've never seen anything as outrageous as the stuff that Fox News seems to pull on a daily basis.

Overall, I love Jon's work on The Daily Show, but I did have problems with the way he handled that.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

I don't believe for one second that Jon thinks MSNBC or even CNN is as evil as Fox News, but he's also a pragmatic guy. He knows that you can't spend all your time criticizing one side or else you will gain a reputation as a partisan hack.

[Mutagen]

Feb 13, 2015 18:04:02 GMT -4 Baby Fish Mouth said:

I don't believe for one second that Jon thinks MSNBC or even CNN is as evil as Fox News, but he's also a pragmatic guy. He knows that you can't spend all your time criticizing one side or else you will gain a reputation as a partisan hack.

But when Guy A commits a misdemeanor and Guy B commits a felony, you also get into hack-ish territory when you act as though the two things are deserving of equal condemnation, that's it, case closed.  I totally get that Jon/TDS had a tough needle to thread when the Democrats came into power, but the false equivalencies really drove me up a wall sometimes.

[pathtaken]

My basic cable boyfriend isn't perfect?
Wyatt Cenac shared a story on Marc Maron's podcast of verbal attack.

[Nysha]

Wow, that's not a pretty story. I'm trying to come up with a good rationale for Jon's reaction & can't.