I couldn’t enjoy Jon Stewart’s work more if I tried.\u00a0 I take him for what he is, a talented comedian who specializes in media criticism and social commentary.\u00a0 He’s not a journalist\u2014doesn’t claim to be and seems to be dismayed whenever someone calls him one\u2014and he’s not a news source.<\/p>\n
News is on Channel 7 at 5 p.m.\u00a0 News is not 9 p.m. on Fox News or 11 p.m. on Comedy Central.<\/p>\n
Are we clear?\u00a0 Good.<\/p>\n
I am, as I explained back in the summer edition of the Clarion<\/em>, a libertarian.\u00a0 Stewart is, by most accounts, a moderate liberal.\u00a0 He openly supported Barack Obama, and seemed to support both Al Gore and John Kerry on his show during their respective elections.\u00a0 So how in the world can I–as far right as you can be–appreciate the work of someone so far apart from me on the political spectrum?<\/p>\n Because of what he brings to the table.\u00a0 Journalists are meant to be the eyes and ears for the public.\u00a0 But, who watches the journalists?\u00a0 Media criticism is important too, and Stewart seems to be the best media critic in the business today.<\/p>\n No, we do not agree on a number of issues–namely Stewart’s assertion that because the government runs the army and maintains the roads, why can’t they run health care?–but he seems to appreciate liberty and understands that a free society is a great society, even if some of what he supports constricts freedom.<\/p>\n Stewart seems to be cognizant of the failures of the Obama administration too.\u00a0 Stewart wanted change\u2014who didn\u2019t?\u2014but like me, is far from pleased from what we\u2019ve received.\u00a0 In Obama, Stewart saw a chance to truly break from the Washington tide.\u00a0 Instead, Obama is simply more of the same.\u00a0 Stewart hasn\u2019t hesitated to mention this, either.<\/p>\n In particular Stewart has hammered the President on the issues of civil liberties.\u00a0 If George W. Bush was a cancer to liberties, then Obama is like a flaming chainsaw.<\/p>\n Concerning Obama\u2019s record on civil liberties\u2014including a Washington Post<\/em> story on the President\u2019s secret military programs\u2014Stewart succinctly said, \u201cyou didn\u2019t think we\u2019d find out?\u201d<\/p>\n But enough about Stewart\u2019s commentary.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s change gears and talk about this rally he\u2019s holding.\u00a0 Called “The Rally to Restore Sanity,\u201d it seems to be in direct mockery of Fox commentator Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally held in Washington D.C. last month.<\/p>\n The rally is October 30th, in Washington D.C, from noon to 3 p.m., because as Stewart put it, the sitter can\u2019t stay past 3, so we have to get home. Stewart’s prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of sorts, Stephen Colbert, is also having an event, but his is a march.\u00a0 I would assume that the two comedians would be working together on the event, but with allegedly different motives.\u00a0 Colbert\u2014whose entire show and character is in mockery of cable news pundits\u2014is holding a “March to Keep Fear Alive.”\u00a0 As the website for the march reads, Colbert believes America was based on three principles: “Freedom, Liberty and Fear.”<\/p>\n Colbert\u2019s march is supposed to be funny and over the top compared to Stewart\u2019s.<\/p>\n I understand what Stewart and Colbert are not, and I appreciate them for what they are.\u00a0 But all of what I said aside, it really helps that they\u2019re funny.\u00a0 With politics being what they are, who doesn\u2019t want to laugh sometimes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I couldn’t enjoy Jon Stewart’s work more if I tried.\u00a0 I take him for what he is, a talented comedian who specializes in media criticism and social commentary.\u00a0 He’s not a journalist\u2014doesn’t claim to be and seems to be dismayed whenever someone calls him one\u2014and he’s not a news source. News is on Channel 7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1rJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5566,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions\/5566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStewart’s mission?\u00a0 As the official website for the rally reads, the Daily Show sponsored event is “for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives [sic]–not so much the silent majority as the busy majority” and seems to stand opposed to the idea of bringing a sign that declares either<\/em> (that’s key for Stewart) of our last two presidents to be the next Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n