Jon Stewart on Crossfire

I'm a big fan of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and the host of that very show went on Crossfire last night and took the show's hosts to task for the appalling effect that 'partisan hackery' (as he put it) has on political debate in the country.

One of the show's hosts was particularly offended by this, and raised the issue of the 'softly-softly' questions that Jon Stewart put to John Kerry when he appeared on the show. 'Yeah, but this is CNN', he replies. 'The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls'.

He raises an excellent point - it seems somewhat bizarre to me that a self-labeled 'fake news show' is held to the same standards of investigative journalism as those shows that purport to be hard-hitting debate. And yet, the hosts miss the point Stewart was making. - 'you're much funnier on your own show', says the Puppet On The Right. Of course he is - as he just pointed out, his show is on Comedy Central, and Crossfire is on CNN... people expect jokes from the Daily Show, but apparently all the Crossfire hosts wanted was someone to say a few funny things and not actually take advantage of the format or the audience.

'I thought you were going to be funny. Go on, be funny'.

'No... I'm not going to be your monkey'.

Kudos to Jon Stewart for going onto a show known for its hostile, pugilistic approach to debate... and then standing there, and dishing out a much-needed reality check to the two men responsible for much of that approach.