On Newsweek.com [1],
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams absolutely gushed over the lefty comedy
of the "indispensable" Jon Stewart. The piece, which was promoted in the December
7, 2009 edition of the magazine, featured Williams fawning, "In just the span
of a short few years, Jon Stewart has gone from optional to indispensable."
Not holding back his hyperbole, Williams rhapsodized about the harsh
interview [2] the Daily Show host conducted with CNBC host Jim Cramer. He
compared Stewart's attack on Cramer to that of another moment liberals love:
"And yet, in the niche-y, hip, and in-the-know world of late-night,
media-skewering comedy, it had the impact of Cronkite turning against
Vietnam." Coming from Williams, that certainly is high
praise [3]. Appearing on the July 17, 2009 edition of Larry King, the NBC anchor
enthused that he was honored "just was able to breathe the air [Cronkite]
exhaled."
Williams' touting of Stewart and the Daily Show continued. He wrote:
The Web clips of the choreographed filleting of Jim Cramer helped foment public outrage against the excesses of the financial industry in the midst of a housing crisis. That was an important moment. But even more important is the system of checks and balances Jon has created.
In reality, Stewart is a liberal comedian who often touts left-wing talking
points and rarely hits Democrats very hard. Williams never acknowledged this.
He concluded by cooing, "For the past several years, however, there's been
another step added to the end of the process [of journalism]: being held to
account for our faults by a comedy show with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue.
How did we live without it?" [Emphasis added to all.]
Perhaps extolling the virtues of the Stewart is some sort of requirement to
be the NBC Nightly News anchor. For Time magazine's 2005 Hot 100 list, Tom Brokaw [4] oozed:
During the Democratic Convention in Boston, I told him I was heading next to Athens for the Olympic Games, and asked, "You ever been to Athens, Jon?" He laughed and said, "No. Brokaw, you forget. I'm a comic. I've been to Akron, but Athens, no." I am not so sure. Perhaps he was there in another life, for in many ways last year, Jon Stewart was our Athenian, a voice for democratic ideals and the noble place of citizenship, helped along by the sound of laughter.
Newsweek.com's look back at the last decade has been full of (sometimes)
bizarre examples of liberal elitism. On Tuesday, also in the website's 20/10
section, writer David Rakoff produced a fantasy
essay [5] where Al Gore won the 2000 election and 9/11 never happened.
-Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research
Center.