I was disappointed to find that The Daily Show was not back last night; tonight’s the night. Jon Stewart’s in Denver for Indecision 2008 convention coverage. He spoke there yesterday at a breakfast with reporters. Howard Kurtz was there:
Jon Stewart ripped the cable news networks Monday as a “brutish, slow-witted beast” and castigated Fox News in particular as “an appendage of the Republican Party.”
Wearing a gray T-shirt, khaki pants and a healthy stubble, the “Daily Show” host told reporters at a University of Denver breakfast that Fox’s “fair and balanced” slogan is an insult “to people with brains” and that only “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace “saves that network from slapping on a bumper sticker. . . . Barack Obama could cure cancer and they’d figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster.”
“I’m stunned to see Karl Rove on a news network as an analyst,” he said of the Bush White House aide turned Fox commentator. Stewart, who voted for John Kerry in 2004, said he didn’t see CNN’s James Carville, the former Bill Clinton aide, in the same category because “I don’t think he’s being passed off as a sage.”
A Fox News spokesperson called Stewart “out of touch.” Stewart went on to rip the other two 24 hour cable news channels, CNN and MSNBC, and called the network evening newscasts “obsolete.”
When it comes to pols, he’s an equal opportunity comic:
Stewart said he found neither Sens. McCain or Obama particularly funny and it was “absolutely irrelevant” which one takes the White House because “the jokes will be there.” He dismissed criticism that comedians are having a hard time joking about Obama because of his race and said “the age joke with McCain is somewhat meaningless because it’s already trite.”
The choice of Joe Biden as Obama’s runningmate, Stewart said, was refreshing because of the Delaware senator’s large personality and endless possibility for jokes. “Biden is really nice. His style is so effusive and unguarded,” Stewart said. “He’s emotion plus.”
Stewart said politicians in recent campaigns are “animatronic” because all of the “humanity has been managed out of campaigns.” He referenced the back-and-forth during the Pennsylvania Democratic primary over Obama’s lack of bowling skills.
You’ll recall that video clip of Biden saying, “I would be honored to run with or against John McCain because I think the country would be better off,” came from an appearance on The Daily Show. Steve Benen proposes Biden use a rather obvious retort:
“When I said this, McCain opposed Bush’s tax policies, didn’t plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years, wanted the Republican Party platform to be less extreme on abortion rights, supported affirmative action, and rejected the religious right. McCain has since reversed course on all of those issues. I liked the old McCain a lot better than the new one.”
WaPo via Romenesko, “By the way, Kurtz violates the Washington Post sources/attribution policy, which states: “Sources who want to take a shot at someone in our columns should do so in their own names”