Daily Show v. Santorum
I’ve given Jon Stewart grief before for going easy on Kerry, Gillespie, and others. And for lying about guns. Last night, I watched it on the Tivo and Jon Stewart was a total pussy with respect to his interview with Santorum. It was almost painful to watch. You could tell Stewart wanted to lean into him but apparently he lacked the balls to do so.
July 27th, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Again, this is wholly consistent with Stewart’s interviewing M.O. He doesn’t lay into guests, whether he agrees with them or not, until they start trying to duck questions or change the subject. Santorum did neither, so he got the easy treatment. A couple of weeks ago, Bernard Goldberg played the Bob-and-Weave game, and Stewart ate him up.
It’s not about the ideology, it’s about how they respond to Stewarts softballs. Answer them, Stewart plays along; dodge them, and the softballs quickly become hardballs.
As far as I can tell, Stewart’s treatment of his guests is far more even than that of “real” interviewers.
And for what it’s worth, I didn’t think it looked like Stewart wanted to “go after” Santorum. It looked to me like he genuinely wanted to understand where Santorum and others like him are coming from, and just couldn’t get there; it was as if the two were speaking different languages.
So, bottom line, yeah, Stewart went easy on Santorum, but Stewart ALWAYS goes easy on his guests, unless his guests give him a reason not to.
July 27th, 2005 at 3:21 pm
I’ve seen stewart lean into quite a few people. While in some instances you may be right, i don’t think it’s a hard and fast rule.
July 27th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Let me get this stright: we he asks hard question of people you agree with, he is biased. but when he asks easy questions of people you agree with, he is ball-less? Man, the guy just cannot win with you.
And is that how you come to the conclusion that the media is liberal? “Ted Koppell lobbed some softballs to Cheney yesterday, but he looked liek he wanted to lean itno him and just didn’t have the balls to do so” 🙂
July 27th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
When have i ever been irate at him asking a hard question of people I agree with? Go on, tell me, I’ll wait. I don’t know that I’ve ever expressed agreement with Santorum on anything.
And he can win with me, I think he’s funny and ordinarily enjoy his interviews.
July 27th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
SU
I was just teasing — the comment wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Sorry if it came across badly. The way your post is constructed — notion about his handling of interviews where it appears you thought he was unfairly harsh to conservatives followed by an attack on his courage based on the fact that you thought he wanted to be unfairly harsh to a conservative but didn’t have the guts — lends itself to the notion that Stewart’s interviews aren’t making you happy and I just ran with it.
July 27th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
I don’t recall EVER seeing Stewart lean in to anyone unprovoked. I’ve never seen him engage in an ambush or attack interview. If you can think of counterexamples to this, I’d love to hear them.
In your first linked story, when we first got on this subject, you accuesd Stewart of “[giving] certain folks a pass” and saying that those folks “tend to be liberal.” But in all our discussions of this, you’ve never given a single counterexample to shore up this point. “See, he went easy on X and went after Y, even though both X and Y answered his questions candidly.” That’s all I’m looking for.
And, in fact, your criticism of the Santorum interview belies your point in the “give [liberal] folks a pass” accusation. (As does the “went easy on Gillespie” mea culpa in that first post.)
Show me examples of either a liberal guest ducking softballs and Stewart letting them get away with it, or of Stewart grilling a conservative guest unprovoked, and then maybe you’ll have a point worth taking seriously.
July 27th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
Kev, sorry. Apparently i have on my literal pants today.
Tom,
‘guest ducking softballs and Stewart letting them get away with it’
John Kerry. I don’t recall him answering anything of substance and it went on.
Regarding conservatives:
http://www.leanleft.com/archives/2004/06/21/3072/
July 27th, 2005 at 4:02 pm
And you’re missing the point that I’m making which is that stewart, who pokes fun at media for their lack of asking hard questions, does the exact same thing. I don’t particularly care if that person is conservative or liberal.
July 28th, 2005 at 1:01 am
Except that it’s not Stewarts job to ask tough questions, and it never has been. You claim that it’s a “dodge,” but it isn’t really unless he does it unevenly. And if he starts ambushing guests, he’s going to find himself having a hard time getting guests. Who wants to go on Comedy Central and get mugged? (Apparently, lots of people, judging by their Rob Corddry pieces, but those are obscure people, not important ones.)
As for Kerry, he played along with the softballs and so he didn’t get the tough treatment. Ditto for Gillespe, as you acknowledged. Kerry wasn’t dodging softballs (or anything else), he was answering softballs, so he kept getting softballs. That’s precisely how Jon Stewart treats all of his guests, and goes directly to my point.
As for your conservative example, thank you for making my point. Did you see that interview? Stewart kept tossing up softball after softball to that nutjob, and the guy was either unwilling or unable to answer any of them, and they were directly on point with what the guy’s subject matter expertise was supposed to have been. There were no unfair questions there, nothing that the guy shouldn’t have expected to be asked. I’ve rarely seen Stewart do more bending over backward to give a guest the benefit of the doubt than he did for Hayes. It was only after repeated evasive answers to fairly straightforward questions that it turned ugly. And Stewart even tried to bring it back and lighten it up after the commercial break.
(There are links to the video in the comment section of your example.)
July 28th, 2005 at 8:22 am
Never said it was his job. Said it was hypocritical to accuse the media of not asking tough questions then doing the same thing. Kinda funny as the next episode he even acknowledged the interview sucked. heh.
July 28th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
Yeah, I saw that. But Diane Lane’s going down.
And I still don’t think it qualifies as hypocrisy any more than my criticizing the state of health care in this country is hypocritical because I’m not doing anything about it. Remember Jon Stewart isn’t akin to Larry King or Bill O’Reilly. He’s akin to Jay Leno.