Sunday, August 09, 2015

A parting thought on Jon Stewart's Daily Show ... by gimleteye

I just posted the following on the New York Times website, in response to an OPED by Gerard Alexander, "Jon Stewart, Patron Saint of Liberal Smugness". As many of our longtime readers acknowledged in earlier posts, he will be sorely missed.

"Jon Stewart was first and foremost, a comic. He never tip-toed at the edge of intellectual curiosity -- a hard enough trick for humorists -- without a solid measure of self-deprecation to keep him, and us, honest. The honesty was about laughter, and for conservatives to find fault at Stewart's extraordinary ability to turn their foibles and weaknesses, inside out: well, too bad. We've needed something to laugh about in this Age of Idiocy and Jon Stewart provided it reliably. In a sense, I wasn't sad to see him go off-air. It was time, and we could feel it in his bones. At the root of Stewart's brand of comic intelligence was darkness lit by hope. Hope that we do actually have 'angels of our better nature', who sometimes his staff materialized as gospel-style singers behind his desk. In the last years, protecting the resiliency of Jon Stewart's hopefulness became an important part of the show's pacing and it was increasingly clear that the effort was starting to cost more than it was worth to the man at the center of it all. Well good for Jon Stewart. According to news reports, he and his wife will be starting a rescue farm for animals away from the city, and if that's right it makes a certain amount of sense, because with animals we love, unlike carping critics, hope springs without forethought or malice of any kind."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Well said and thoughtful. I will miss Jon terribly, but he did leave us with a wonderful life lesson, "If you smell something, say something." I think you and god do that for us as well. Thanks for enlightening us on the dung heap that is miami-dade county government.

Anonymous said...

At a court hearing on July 30, lawyers for the victims’ families stated that the most major of allegations against the Saudis were purposefully left out of the final draft of the 9/11 Commission report.
“They were removed at the 11th hour by the senior staff,” said attorney Sean Carter, who called the decision a “political matter.”
“[T]hey had documented a direct link between the Saudi government and the Sept. 11 plot based on the explosive material they had uncovered concerning the activities of Fahad al-Thumairy and Omar al-Bayoumi,” explained Carter.
Thumairy worked as a religious cleric and Saudi diplomat in Los Angeles at the time, while Bayoumi was employed by the Saudi Arabian Civil Aviation Authority in San Diego.
"The judge presiding over the case now has a 60-90 day window to either dismiss the case or proceed on behalf of the victims’ families. Jerry Goldman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, feels good about the future of the proceedings. “(The Judge) wasn’t buying their spin,” Goldman said. “The burden is on the kingdom to prove we are wrong, and they didn’t do that.”
With so many unanswered questions surrounding 9/11, there is no telling what may be disclosed if the case is allowed to move forward.
The terrifying reality is that if the Saudis are found guilty of involvement in the events of 9/11, such a conclusion would only raise more questions than it would answer. Who inside the United States government would be covering for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for so many years— and more importantly, why?"
http://theantimedia.org/families-of-911-victims-on-verge-of-proving-government-cover-up-in-court/

Anonymous said...

"According to a new report by Politico, Stewart secretly met with President Obama on two politically-charged occasions, producing slanted content after the fact that favored the president’s image."
http://theantimedia.org/new-report-suggests-jon-stewart-met-with-obama-to-push-political-agenda/

cyndi said...

Anonymous -this one "According to a new report by Politico. If you watched his show they were not in secret, and both times it was the President asking him not to be so jaded. Apparently not just the President but something happened with Billy Joel and a few other people lol. This is just bunch if bs and if you watched the show you would have heard about it.
It's not like John has put on her overalls and off he goes. He is still the producer of the Nightly Show which is quite funny. I'm sure he'll do one of many other things that he does. Write. Direct. Dennis Leary said bet him that in six months his kids will tell to go back to work. I myself expect an hysterical book documenting how a germaphobic comedian learned to live on a farm.
I'll even by next year there is John Stewart show somewhere and maybe even another movie thru his production company "Busboy." Also his wife just wrote a book called "Do unto animals" and he was upset that she was funnier that he was.
I love the man. My son made me watch the Daily way back when. He needs to spend time with his kids. He also alluded to when Dennis was on that he wanted flexibility. He offered a huge contract and he said no because it did not have the flexibility he was looking for. Not so much "I'm leaving to go make a farm into an animal sanctuary"
I think after a nice vacation we'll be seeing him again. Hopefully sooner than later.