Originally posted on: 2007-08-20

Original location: http://blog.chrisheath.us/it-s-actually-a-war-on-stupidity/


Here's a great run-down of the Jon Stewart -- John Gibson dust-up. You might as well go and click the link to It's actually a War on Stupidity by jack_post_jill on livejournal and read the whole thing. However, if you like an taste I'll give you a taste.

But first I should also mention some of the links to videos (on YouTube and iFilm).

Here's a recent Daily Show interview segment. He mentions Gibson at the end, but the whole interview is very good. Watch It.

Here's Keith Olbermann giving Gibson the 'Worst Person in the World'.

And finally your taste as promised... that is if you haven't already clicked on through to It's actually a War on Stupidity by jack_post_jill on livejournal

I honestly don't believe for a second that Gibson or Rich have sat down to watch an entire episode of The Daily Show, and I don't pretend to have sat through an hour of Gibson's or Rich's radio or television program. But thoroughly a fan of Stewart's, I can honestly state that Stewart does not walk out on stage and toss "Bush sucks" fish to the audience. He doesn't tear the War on Terror apart but rather dissects it and asks us to take a look inside so that we can inspect how horribly it's been handled for the last 6 years. He questions the decisions of our leaders, he finds the inconsistencies in their logic, and he attacks not the concept as a whole but the execution of its many parts, often offering alternative and apparently more sensible options, which sometimes are realistic, sometimes not. The Jon Stewart of today is not incongruent to the Jon Stewart of September 20. Back then, he didn't want another repeat of 9/11. Today, he still doesn't, but has seen all the things going wrong with how the War on Terror is being handled and questions its legitimacy, intent, and methods.

But in all honesty, it's Jon Stewart's audience that should be taking the most offense at Gibson and Rich's comments. Having called us "clapping seals" who just "eat up" everything Stewart throws us, they have simplified an entire population as a group of people who do not think for themselves and wait to be fed information which we ourselves do not consider and analyze on a nightly basis. I would more quickly reserve that kind of judgment for a viewer of Fox News's programming, but I won't--first of all, it's not that simple, and second, what someone of a different political persuasion than me believes in and how they come to believe it is their decision, and it is not my place to tell them that what they follow is wrong and force feed them my perspective. But it is my place to offer my logic and views and allow them to come to their own conclusion.

So Jon Stewart? A phony? Hardly any adjective attached to his name could be so far off and wrong. With the courage he displays in asking the tough questions and analyzing the problems at hand as in-depth as possible, he's a model to follow, whatever your political persuasion might be.


Once again, this was an excerpt from It's actually a War on Stupidity by jack_post_jill on livejournal



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