Jon Stewart gets it right--again

Jon Stewart appeared on CNN's Crossfire and blasted the hosts for squandering their opportunity to help the public understand the issues of this election. The film is available online at ifilm.com. Steward didn't single out Crossfire as much as point out that they were part of the problem when they could be part of the solution.

Robert Mancini of MTV has this to say,

In an era when the media is increasingly fragmented and viewers can surround themselves with programming that falls right in line with their own views, be they on the right or the left, Stewart's blast seemed especially on point. It seems fitting that the tirade came on a day when much of the media attention focused on the presidential race was directed at the mention of Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter during the last presidential debate, as opposed to the issues addressed at that debate.

And it is disappointing what we focus on after these debates. Yes, it is part of the dumbing down of TV news, the Inquirer-style production of celebrity from incidental crimes. The big issue of the Scott Peterson case is that he's being charged with the murder of his unborn child, in addition to his wife, but that's not the focus on the news. Other than that, there's nothing more to this story--women are killed by significant others every day.

After the debates, I wanted to see a splice of two short clips: Bush's debate "gaff," when he ever-so sarcastically denied saying that he didn't think Bin Laden was a threat, spliced with the Bush revelation that Kerry was referencing. Then I wanted the news to discuss how smart Bush was in the earlier clip--saying essentially that Bin Laden is only ONE of the many terrorists out there, and that we will make a mistake if we focus only on him. Then I wanted some discussion of the inappropriate way Bush talked to Kerry--it was not presidential, it was not even worthy of English parliament members. It was the childish way he makes fun of the opposition to his base. I've talked before in this blog about how Bush directed his debate responses to his base and how that isn't persuasive.

I wanted a discussion of Kerry's vote on the $87 billion--and the bill Kerry did support--and the problems the troops are having because Bush wouldn't wait for the funding before taking us to war without imminent threat. It isn't one senator's fault that our troops don't have armor--but it is a problem that our president wouldn't wait for equipment before sending the troops into battle. We can't let Bush off the hook on some claim of "faulty intelligence on WMDs" since many of us knew at the time that Bush was collecting intelligence to support his already-made decision, not to find out whether his decision was right--and because the rest of the world saw through his arguments, too.

Bush blew it and the news isn't reporting it. This isn't a matter of equal time for the candidates--it's about monopolies in news media ownership and the need to fill several channels of 24-hour "news"--and the result is the loss of real news.