I Love Jon Stewart.

I had a chance to listen to Jon Stewart drill Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala on Crossfire today. I have to say I have a crush on Jon Stewart now. He nailed those guys on the theatricality and absolute irrelevance of their "debate" show. His cuts were deep and satisfying. There is no debate, it's a thirty minute shill session. Their show further corrodes my opinion, not a positive one mind you, that CNN and all it's TV bethren are nothing more than corporate garbage. There is no real discourse. It's sound bite fluff, punditry, and opinion disguised as "informed analysis". You never get real news or unbiased journalism and that sucks.

While I like Paul Begala and grudgingly agree with Tucker Carlson on occasion, I believe they're not doing anything more than lowering the bar where Crossfire is concerned. And Jon had the balls to stick it to them where it counts and I love him for it. I've only read one book by Begala: "Is our children learning". While I found it to be a good fun read, I felt at the time - it's been at least 4 years since I read it - that Paul came off a little smarmy or unctuous in his approach to analyzing GW Bush. He really wanted to stick it to Bush and he did, completely. But his attempts at "civility" seemed very forced and not at all genuine. And Tucker? Well Tucker's a dick, but he's a smart guy and not a senseless toady like James Carville or Robert Novak. Transcript.
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Sketch: 75 minutes.