Kudos To Jon Stewart

I have to admit that I do not watch political shows on television. I try to sit through them but never make it. The closest I get to a political show is "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" , which is why I wanted to watch Crossfire on Friday when Stewart was on the show. I missed on Friday but I read the transcipts. Today I searched until I found a copy of it on the internet(s). Reading the transcripts give you a good idea of what happened but it is really something you must see. He said all of the things I feel when I try to watch these shows that they are basically a joke. There are serious issues that face our country our world and these shows are reduced to a grown up game of I'm rubber and you're glue what bounces off me and sticks to you. Politicians go on these shows to lie i.e. Condi Rice saying the aluminum tubes were only good for enriching uranium. They go on these shows to further their aims and justify their actions. Regular people go an these shows to lie i.e. Swift Boat Liars. There is never an honest discourse of the issues of the day. What we get is two weeks of swift boat liars and Howard Dean's yell at a political rally a hundred times to make him seem unfit to lead this country. Which makes what Stewart did on Friday more impressive. He went on that show to say stop. I realize now why I don't watch these types of shows it because I learn nothing from them. They don't depart news or engage in intellectual discussions. All they do is repeat lies and talking points. Why did the media destroy Dean's bid for the Presidency? I think it was because he spoke too many truths that America doesn't want to hear. Why did Kerry have to spend the first 30 seconds of almost every question in the debates issuing a talking point? Because the media has allowed what he has said to be so distorted that he had to explain himself before he answered a question. The TV media is out of control in this country. Sinclair Broadcasting is allowed to preempt shows on 62 staions in this country with a 2 hour propaganda film that is full of lies and call it news. What is the big story now? Whether it was appropriate for Kerry to mention Cheney's lesbian daughter during the debate. Even though the real question is the hypocrisy of why anyone would be a part of an administration trying to discriminate against a member of one's own family. Or maybe a better question is why the world was lied to about the reasons to go to war with Iraq? When the memo's of Dan Rather's story were fake that was the story instead of the fact that even if the memos themselves were fake everything they said was true. It was truly a non story when the President of Viacom said that he wouldn't air a story on the Niger documents ( that were used to make the case for war) being forgeries because Bush in the White House was better for his company than Kerry. None of these stations have any responsibility to the public. They are responsible to shareholders. Jon Stewart was right when he said that these shows are hurting America. They hurt America by playing politics on the most superficial level and pretending to be in depth. It is really sad that Stewart's show sometimes come closer to actual news than these shows. On Crossfire he told the two hosts uncomfortable truths and they knew he was right. And perhaps what was more telling is that for all their "debating" they couldn't handled or even respond to it. And I for one am glad that that day he decided not be another monkey but spoke up for what is right.