Misery Loves Company: Jon Stewart Hosts Wendy Davis
You can’t accuse Jon Stewart of not being a team player. Like the rest of his media colleagues, he’s done his part to help Wendy Davis – even having her as a “Daily Show” guest while her spectacularly awful Texas gubernatorial campaign is in its death throes.
On Oct. 27, he offered her sympathy and softballs – really not much different than the love the media favorite has gotten from other outlets. Stewart dutifully brought up Davis’ June 2013 filibuster 2013 to stop “anti-choice legislation” that would close several abortion clinics in Texas. The 11-hour marathon made Davis – and her cute pink tennis shoes – a liberal star. Yet the legislation passed anyway.
Davis solemnly confirmed, “Yes that’s right. In our Texas senate it passed unfortunately in a special session and it resulted in exactly what we feared. Almost all of the women’s health centers that provided that constitutionally protected medical care closed.” (How many focus groups did the Davis campaign work through to come up with that language? “Women’s health?” Check. “Constitutionally protected?” Got it. “Medical care?” It’s in there.)
Of course, those clinics couldn’t maintain the safety standards other Texas medical facilities must, but why quibble over details?
An exasperated Stewart responded, “There's no way to gain that back? Can Austin do sort of a planned parenthood food truck thing for everybody? Get a taco and a pap smear? I don’t know how they could do it. But they could do it.”
Stewart then teed up another talking point for Davis, criticizing Texas voter I.D. laws. He claimed an estimated “650,000 to 700,000 Texans could be disenfranchised because of this.”
Davis started to respond, “That’s correct. My opponent, Greg Abbott, who is the Attorney General--” when she was interrupted by audience boos. She laughed and continued, “He is defending what is, of course, intended to suppress vote[s].”
Finally, Stewart couldn’t resist a slap at the red-state yokels
about to reject the media’s candidate, bringing up another Davis talking point:
“I was shocked when they
said they were trying to cut 5.5 billion from education in Texas I had no idea you spent anywhere near that.”
If only Stewart were as funny as watching the candidacy of a liberal media “folk-hero” implode.
— Kristine Marsh is Staff Writer for MRC Culture at the Media Research Center. Follow Kristine Marsh on Twitter.
