Here is Peter Schiff describing the hatchet job the Daily Show did on an interview he did with the show —
And, of course, it is not difficult to find asinine comments like those quoted below, in response to the ReasonTV video above, which indicate that many people believe that one can say anything they want, however inaccurate, regarding real news events, as long as one claims or pretends to be a comedian — and while at the same time acting as if such comments and criticisms deserve to be taken seriously —
Jon Stewart is a comedian. His show was never meant as serious news reporting. The fact that he was often more accurate than the actual news just tells us what the state of the news shows in America is.
I always thought Stewart was a comedian, pointing out modern political absurdities. Now I go to find out he is a "talking head" pundit. Who knew?
And here is a Jon Stewart fan who thinks that one can point out 'how ridiculous certain things are' by making false statements (or 'half truths', as this fan calls them). Notice that this fan explicitly states that it was never appropriate to take anything Stewart said 'as fact at all', or to view Stewart's show as 'legitimate' —
It's comedy! It doesn't bother me that Stewart shifts positions and tells half truths. He's trying to get a laugh and point out how ridiculous certain things are. The fact people take what he says as fact at all says more about them than Stewart. Maybe it's because I'm old enough to remember when Stewart's show wasn't veiled in some mythical legitimacy but damn!
Nothing Jon Stewart said should have been taken as fact? Really?
Jon Stewart's show should never have been viewed as legitimate? Really?
I doubt Jon Stewart would appreciate those characterizations.
It seems pretty obvious that Stewart was trying to get laughs, but it seems especially unlikely that he would hope and expect that no one would take anything he said as the truth.
And here is a comment from a Stewart fan to another commenter who criticized Stewart's show for the extent to which they would go 'to get a cheap laugh out of the audience'. Notice how the second commenter implies that nothing on Stewart's show was 'real news', even though 'The Daily Show' was dominated by clips from real news organizations (like Fox News), and that Stewart made it a point to show where those news organizations had inaccuracies in some piece of reporting —
Most people who watch The Daily Show have no idea how often they tell half truths and twist stories just to get a cheap laugh out of the audience. ...
" ... people who watch The Daily Show have no idea"
You mean they think it's real news? Just like libertarians think it's real news? What a bunch of morons!
Well, it is pretty safe to say, that Stewart did not consider episodes like the one below to be 'fake news', or that viewers should not have taken his comments during this segment as fact, in contradiction to the previous comment above. This segment, as just one example, is completely nonsensical when viewed in that way, since the whole point of the segment is to mock the questionable facts of an actual news organization. If Stewart's comments are meant to be taken as 'fake news' or not 'as fact at all', as many of his fans insist, then such segments are just pathetic stupidity, rather than a real mocking criticism of a news organization. That is, it isn't the least bit funny, if the events did not actually happen, and Stewart's comment are not actually true —
The point here is not whether or not you believe every word Jon Stewart says, or that he should always be right (unlikely, even for the most conscientious journalist) — the point is that his show was clearly commenting on real news (i.e. stuff that actually happened), and he clearly had some expectation that viewers would not treat everything about the show as false — as much as many Jon Stewart fans want to excuse his sloppiness with that bizarre rationalization.
In fact, beginning at about 4:10 in 'The Daily Show' video above, Jon Stewart clearly states that his show does not lie, or even distort. Here is a short transcription of Stewart's statements from the video above, that are in direct contradiction to many of the comments from 'The Daily Show' fans —
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/9up6u7/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-better-call-foul
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But see, the little game that they play here is: the only reason the right looks bad is that these guys are unfair liars to us.
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My point is, we don't lie, we don't distort. We actually have a fella who works in the building who uses every fiber of his being to prevent us from doing so, that moral bastard, that ...
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The point is, on the right, they're pretending that our truthfulness, is what's really important to them, which ironically is not true. What matters to the right is discrediting anything that they believe harms their side.
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But see, the little game that they play here is: the only reason the right looks bad is that these guys are unfair liars to us.
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My point is, we don't lie, we don't distort. We actually have a fella who works in the building who uses every fiber of his being to prevent us from doing so, that moral bastard, that ...
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The point is, on the right, they're pretending that our truthfulness, is what's really important to them, which ironically is not true. What matters to the right is discrediting anything that they believe harms their side.
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Of course, Jon Stewart's fans will likely pretend that his statement that his show does not distort, was just comedy too, regardless of how emphatically he makes the claim.
