{"id":2011701,"date":"2023-08-25T07:43:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jon-stewarts-real-legacy-is-a-generation-of-smug-lazy-dishonest-news-consumers\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T07:51:08","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:51:08","slug":"jon-stewarts-real-legacy-is-a-generation-of-smug-lazy-dishonest-news-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jon-stewarts-real-legacy-is-a-generation-of-smug-lazy-dishonest-news-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Stewart&#8217;s true legacy: A generation of smug, lazy, and dishonest news consumers."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjon-stewarts-real-legacy-is-a-generation-of-smug-lazy-dishonest-news-consumers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2011701&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>In a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EoinLenihan\/status\/1692338250214510778?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweet<\/a> critiquing the\u2063 legacy of Jon \u2062Stewart, \u200bI summarized that for my generation, who were \u2063coming of age during 9\/11 and \u2062the war in Iraq, we were desperately in search \u2062of anyone who could cut \u2064through the\u200c corporate media\u2063 partisanship. We craved \u2064an everyman to tell it\u2063 like it was. We were given Jon Stewart. And just like he taught us, we became smug, disingenuous, and lazy thinkers.<\/p>\n<p>The post went viral with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1692458663888457947?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Elon \u200cMusk weighing in<\/a>, stating, \u201cI rather liked the old Daily Show and Colbert Report. But now they\u2019ve gone off in a direction that is\u2026\u201d Thousands agreed.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Three hours \u2064later <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonstewart\/status\/1692568978319659513?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stewart tweeted<\/a>, \u201cThere is no finer legacy \u200cthan having the right people hate you. Frauds,\u2063 liars \u2063and hack ideologues. Discuss.\u201d So I thought I should.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bush, \u2018Crossfire,\u2019 and the Birth of an Everyman<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s Dec. 13, 2000. While all major news outlets analyze \u2062George W. Bush\u2019s acceptance speech\u200c along predictably partisan lines ad nauseam, \u2062a fresh-faced Jon\u2063 Stewart, host \u2062of \u201cThe Daily \u200cShow,\u201d features a two-second clip of Bush saying, \u201cI\u2064 was \u200dnot elected to serve \u2064one party\u2026\u201d The camera\u200c cuts to Stewart who looks us straight in the\u2064 eyes: \u201cYou were not elected.\u201d Boom! This was the guy who was going to hold \u200cour politicians\u2019 feet to\u200c the fire and smash the news media corporations that propped them up. This was <em>our<\/em> guy.<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, with the\u200d war in \u200cIraq raging, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE&#038;ab_channel=AlexFelker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stewart appeared<\/a> on CNN\u2019s long-running debate \u200dshow, \u201cCrossfire.\u201d He refused to play \u200bby their rules \u200cand instead chastised hosts Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. \u201cWhat you\u2063 do is partisan hackery,\u201d he said launching into a \u2063hostile critique. \u201cYou\u2019re doing theatre when you should be doing debate.\u201d It was a brutal\u200b assault. He positioned himself perfectly as the disaffected\u2019s \u200deveryman. \u201cCome \u200dwork for us, the\u200b people. \u2026 We need\u200c your help. Right\u200b now\u200d you\u2019re helping the politicians and corporations\u2064 and we\u2019re left out there.\u201d \u200dIt was \u2064a star turn.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leftist Hackery and the Death of the Everyman<\/h2>\n<p>In 2004, we \u200bforgave Stewart for his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna5809660\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">obvious support for John Kerry<\/a>. Anyone was better than Bush, right? But throughout the Obama administration, Stewart <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/3966335\/a-brief-history-of-obamas-daily-show-appearances\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increasingly<\/a> became\u2063 a mouthpiece for the president. In 2011 and again in 2014, Stewart was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/agenda\/story\/2015\/07\/jon-stewarts-secret-white-house-visits-000178\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">secretly invited<\/a> to\u2062 the White House to talk\u2063 policy. After that second meeting, in which the two spoke \u2064about the Russian intervention in Crimea, Stewart returned to \u201cThe \u200dDaily\u200c Show\u201d with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cc.com\/video\/mtwtms\/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-big-vladdy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">laser focus on Putin<\/a>. In 2015, \u200dthe L.A. Times perfectly encapsulated the \u200drelationship between the two\u200b in\u2064 a piece entitled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/tv\/showtracker\/la-et-st-obama-daily-show-20150721-htmlstory.html\">When\u200c Barack Obama met Jon Stewart: A Love Story<\/a><em>.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Just how \u200bdid \u200dthe guy who accused the \u201cCrossfire\u201d hosts of \u201cpartisan hackery\u201d become the ultimate political insider who literally \u200btook his \u2064orders\u200b from\u200c the Oval Office and shilled them on his show under the guise of comedy?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Jon\u2064 Stewart Playbook<\/h2>\n<p>There is a deeper and more uncomfortable truth about Jon Stewart, and it is this. He has always been, as\u200c he would put it, \u2062a hack. A witty one, but \u200ba hack nonetheless.\u200d As kids, we were dazzled \u2063by Stewart\u2019s\u2064 mugging to the camera, pregnant pauses, slick video \u200cmontages, and selective editing. It \u200b <em>was<\/em> effective \u2014 and funny \u2014 to reduce Bush\u2019s speech to a two-second clip and a one-liner. However, it was also \u2063smug and \u2063condescending, and it used comedy \u2063as a replacement for intellectual rigor.\u2062 And behind that\u200c cloak of comedy, there has always been a strong leftist partisanship.<\/p>\n<p>A good example of Stewart\u2019s shtick is a recent episode of his new series \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@TheProblemWithJonStewart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The\u2062 Problem With<\/a>.\u201d In \u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wu27WJ0Axcw&#038;ab_channel=TheProblemWithJonStewart\">\u201cThe Problem With White People,\u201d<\/a> he opens with a montage of (mainly CNN) reporters calling for a\u2064 \u201cracial reckoning\u201d after the death of George Floyd. He \u200dmock stumbles over the word\u2063 \u201creparations.\u201d \u201cOh so you \u2063guys (news reporters) are finally ready \u200dto\u2064 talk\u200d about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jon-stewarts-real-legacy-is-a-generation-of-smug-lazy-dishonest-news-consumers\/\" title=\"Jon Stewart's true legacy: A generation of smug, lazy, and dishonest news consumers.\">racial repar\u2026reckoning\u201d \u2014 pregnant pause \u2014 awkward eye contact<\/a> with the camera. Audience \u2064laughs. His media critique is a sad\u200c imitation of his visceral attack on \u201cCrossfire.\u201d He has become the establishment, and those reporters he\u200b mildly rebukes adore.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of the media, Stewart\u2019s real fire is reserved for Mike Pence who \u200cawkwardly states, \u201cNow it\u2019s \u2064time\u2062 for us to have ears to\u2064 hear [black concerns].\u201d Stewart crudely jokes, \u2063\u201cOh, good,\u2063 because I\u2019ve been using mine for f-cking.\u201d It shows that his naked hostility toward conservatives\u200d holds as\u2064 strong as it did \u200cback in\u200b the\u200c early \u201900s. It wasn\u2019t just about Bush. He\u2019s\u2062 actually a partisan hack and increasingly blunt with age.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Race-Baiting and Bending Facts<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Later in the episode, a black woman claims that they burn cities because they are not theirs: \u201cWe\u2064 own\u2063 nothing.\u201d There follows a rousing montage of historical \u200bblack activists lamenting the ongoing vestiges of slavery\u2062 in the USA. It ends with an 1852 quote by \u2064Frederick Douglass strategically placed to convince his audience that nothing has changed since before the Civil War.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart also compares the crack \u2062crisis in black communities in the \u201980s to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walgreens-hit-with-a-lawsuit-for-highly-suspicious-selling-of-these-meds\/\" title=\"Walgreens Hit With a Lawsuit for \u201cHighly Suspicious\u201d Selling of These Meds\">ongoing opioid crisis<\/a> in Appalachia, claiming we make excuses for deprived\u2064 white people but not \u200ddeprived black people. As a case in point, \u2063he shows \u2062a montage of news reports on\u2063 black riots in \u200cPhiladelphia\u200b in which \u200breporters are \u200ccritical of participants before\u200c showing reporters playfully covering the carnage in the city after the Eagles Super Bowl win.\u2062 It is deeply cynical. If he were ethical, he would \u2064have compared like with like. Deprived blacks burn their \u2064cities, deprived Appalachians do not. But this is not new.\u2064 He pulled this exact same bait and switch when he covered the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wwy7pWvO3p0&#038;ab_channel=ComedyCentral\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Baltimore riots in 2014<\/a>. It is morally and intellectually bankrupt.<\/p>\n<p>Attempting to \u200dprove it\u2019s still 1852, he presents several misleading\u2063 slides\u2062 on home ownership, segregation, and median\u200d household wealth. \u200dOne states that on\u200b average, household wealth for white high school graduates ($115,000) \u2064is greater than for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/poll-black-voters-oppose-chain-migration-by-almost-two-to-one\/\" title=\"Poll: Black Voters Oppose Chain Migration by Almost Two to One\">black college graduates<\/a>\u2063 ($51,000). The figure he flashes on the screen is \u2062striking.<\/p>\n<p>How can it be that white people with a high school \u2062diploma are earning $115,000 working in \u2063McDonalds? Obviously, \u2063they aren\u2019t. They made a \u2064conscious decision\u2064 to go into manual trades like plumbing, roofing,\u200d etc., and they work damn hard. It is an option open to members \u200dof any race who instead chose\u200b college.<\/p>\n<p>Another complicating issue is choice of\u200b college major. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/progress-on-diversity-in-the-doctoral-pipeline-is-slow\/#:~:text=Black%20research%20doctorates%20are%20much,research%20doctorates%20in%20STEM%20fields.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent<\/a> Brookings Institution study showed that black students \u2064are much less likely to major in high-paying STEM subjects \u200bcompared \u2064to other races. The number of black PhDs in STEM is well below average across the races\u2063 while over-represented in \u2064lower-paying\u2062 professions like \u200deducation.\u2062 Deceptively, the\u2064 graph Stewart shows is household wealth.\u2064 Obviously,\u2062 in households with two parents, there will be a higher \u2062average income.\u200c Across all races, \u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/the-majority-of-us-children-still-live-in-two-parent-families\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">black families are dramatically less\u200c likely to have two married parents<\/a> in the home (36 percent) \u200dthan whites (74 percent) or Asians (85 percent). But why include any of this nuance when one can just blame \u2062racism for the disparity?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Real Legacy of Stewart<\/h2>\n<p>Closing out his show on \u200drace, Stewart\u200d again mock stumbles over the word\u2064 \u201creparations\u201d and\u2062 states that it sets off \u201cwhite people\u2019s \u2018They\u2019re coming for our sh-t\u2019 alarm.\u201d And this was his point all along.\u2063 It wasn\u2019t a comedy routine. It\u2019s time for white Americans \u200cto pay reparations because it\u2019s\u200d still 1852.<\/p>\n<p>This\u200c older, more tired Jon Stewart is like a sad tribute act to his younger self. He falls back on\u200b a trusted\u200c method \u200bto \u2063sell his political messaging: the gags, the mugging to the camera, the slick video montages, and the mild rebuke of adoring news media hosts \u200bbefore unloading on the nearest\u2063 Republican he \u2063can blame the issue of the day on. It is\u2064 a threadbare routine. Still, he goes\u200d through the motions.<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, Jon Stewart took CNN\u2019s \u201cCrossfire\u201d off the air by accusing them of partisan\u200d hackery and engaging in political theater. The sad truth is, Jon Stewart has long become a victim of his\u2063 own criticism. He is\u200b the ultimate political insider \u2063profiting from tearing America apart, all the while pretending to \u200bhave\u2064 its best interests at heart. He poisoned my generation\u2019s ability to conduct civil discourse, and now he\u2062 calls us \u201cliars, frauds, and hack ideologues\u201d as he lines his pockets. That is his legacy.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a tweet, I highlighted how my generation, shaped by 9\/11 and the Iraq war, longed for someone to break through media bias. Jon Stewart&#8217;s legacy resonated with us as he became the relatable voice we sought, unafraid to speak the truth. We yearned for an authentic perspective amidst the corporate media&#8217;s partisan narratives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1724,"featured_media":2011702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1724"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}