Patterico's Pontifications

10/8/2014

NBC Drooled Over Jon Stewart for “Meet the Press”

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 pm



With clown nose or, or clown nose off?

Before choosing [Chuck] Todd, NBC News president Deborah Turness held negotiations with Jon Stewart about hosting Meet the Press, according to three senior television sources with knowledge of the talks. One source explained that NBC was prepared to offer Stewart virtually “anything” to bring him over. “They were ready to back the Brink’s truck up,” the source said. A spokesperson for NBC declined to comment. James Dixon, Stewart’s agent, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Congratulations, by the way, Chuck Todd. Three senior television sources just told the world that NBC didn’t really want you.

Anyway, I have noted here before that Jon Stewart is not an actual intellect — because if you ever press him on anything, he employs the dodge that he is just a comedian. Jim Treacher was the first to notice this:

I’ve been getting more and more annoyed with him trying to have it both ways, being an increasingly self-righteous advocate and yet deflecting criticism with “It’s just a comedy show!” . . . I don’t think he necessarily needs to choose between pundit and comedian. He can do both. Just maybe not in the same breath. It was maddening when he lectured those guys and they wanted to talk to him about it, and he kept going, “Wait, I’m just a comedian!” Clown nose off, clown nose on, clown nose off, clown nose on.

In the post linked above, I showed with transcripts exactly how Stewart resorts to this dodge every time he is criticized. For example, when Tucker Carlson criticized Stewart for conducting an interview with John Kerry with his lips pressed against Kerry’s posterior, Stewart said things like “If you want to compare your show to a comedy show, you’re more than welcome to” or “You’re on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.”

We get it. We don’t get to criticize you because you’re just a comedian.

Trouble is, you can’t employ that dodge on “Meet the Press.”

Stewart, to his credit, appears to have recognized this, and wisely declined.

He’s going to leave the clown nose on for now. Or at least, keep it in his pocket, within close reach.

14 Responses to “NBC Drooled Over Jon Stewart for “Meet the Press””

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. that reminds me i saw this recently

    who knew Meghan’s coward daddy was the biggest whore in Sunday talk?

    and that #2 is his little dog Lindsay?

    ok most of y’all probably knew that

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  3. Sadly, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many people think Stewart has a news-y program, as opposed to pedestrian predictable political comedy.

    JD (950bc6)

  4. Hardly anyone watches Stewart, who is apparently famous and influential because leftwing self-styled cognoscenti say he is.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  5. I remember there was an HBO show called ‘Not Necessarily the News’ no one took it seriously,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  6. I liked him when he came to the defense of Nikki Hailey. It may have been the only time I liked him.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. Stewart and Todd are both clowns. Period.

    Stewart only thinks his “clown nose” is removable, but his “clown nose” is the one the OB saw beneath his eyebrows when he popped out of his mom.

    I take nothing about either of them seriously except their continuing potential to confuse and mislead. I take such comfort as I can from knowing that most of those who are so misled are themselves willing and eager victims who’d be lost regardless: They’re largely preaching to the converted, rallying the base rather than persuading anyone who’s genuinely skeptical or very well-informed.

    But at the margins, Stewart and his even more immature spawn Colbert cause some number of voters to turn out or stay home, or to vote progressive when they otherwise wouldn’t. So I think he’s genuinely dangerous, especially when it comes to people under about age 30; he’s got some kind of stealth technology that lets him slip through the youngsters’ BS detectors, most of ’em.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  8. Thank you, Jesus, for giving me enough sense to ignore dolts like stewart.

    mg (31009b)

  9. i’ve never watched anything by whoever this is, nor do i more than vaguely recognize his name and that of the others mentioned.

    mostly because i listen to Ernie Kovacs, who said:

    Television: A medium. So called because it’s neither rare nor well done.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  10. We get concerned about Stewart because of the occasional study or poll showing some significant proportion of young people actually get their news from his comedy show. But remember: this is the subset that is ill-informed, gullible, and likely drug-addled to begin with. IOW, they are and were potential Democrats anyway.

    I for one am far more concerned that some adults take Chuck Todd seriously than some kids taking Stewart as real news.

    Estragon (ada867)

  11. I remember when the daily show was a brilliant piece of satire of the news magazine formats like 20/20 or Dateline or 60 minutes. Then Jon Stewart took over and it tried to maintain that balance between an SNL weekend update satire and real news program bit. Never fully successful in either side.
    The problem is that Stewart knows he is full of it and loves to tweak folks with that whole clown nose BS. That is what endures him to everyone who is under the age of 35. That he somehow speaks truth through the layer of BS. Yet, just like a relative of mine explained about musical acts that stick it to the man supposedly (cue Rage Against the Machine asshole front man picture here), if he cared to speak truth to the people then he would stick both sides when they screw up and since he doesn’t it only shows that at heart he is a crass money grabbing hypocritical arse.

    Charles (8fe509)

  12. Lebowitz is a perfectly nice last name. So NBC was prepared to use a guy who uses a fake name on a supposed news program. Really what can you expect frome a media companty that gives Al Sharpton a TV show.

    Bugg (3a2abd)

  13. I wonder how many people right of center they asked.

    Just kidding!

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  14. I’ve never understood your problem with his explanation. If he were a song writer who was invited on crossfire and made the same complaint then “why don’t you do that in your songs?” would seem to be a silly question. Why is comedy different?

    The question of why Tucker Carlson wanted the perspective of a comedian deserves an answer.

    I have Jon Stewert do serious interviews, he has a pretty decent one on youtube with O’Riely. You can take or leave his position but he didn’t try to dodge anything by saying he was a comedian in that one.

    time123@gmail.com (066362)


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