On the June 19th edition of Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
Wallace called attention to Stewart’s characterization of Fox News as “a biased organization relentlessly promoting an ideological agenda under the rubric of being a news organization.” Wallace then asked Stewart if he was willing to say the same thing about the mainstream media – i.e., that the mainstream media was pushing a liberal agenda under the rubric of being a news organization. Stewart ridiculously insisted that the mainstream media does not pursue a liberal agenda in partisan fashion; instead, he said, they pursued sensationalism and laziness:
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Wallace: How do you explain the fact that [The New York Times] would ask their readers to go through the Palin emails, inconsequential as they turned out to be, but never said ‘Help us go through the 2,000 pages of the Obama health care bill’.
Stewart: Because I think their bias is towards sensationalism and laziness, I wouldn’t say it’s towards a liberal agenda, it’s light fluff.”
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Of course, “light fluff” can also have bias. And it does. Although Stewart denies being a partisan, his own “light fluff” consistently mocks conservatives rather than liberals. He is not an equal opportunity comedian.
But he insists he is. ”My comedy is informed by an ideological background, there’s no question about that,” Stewart said “There’s no question I don’t tell the full story…But not based on a purely ideological partisan agenda”. Wallace challenged Stewart, saying that he pushes more of an agenda that he pretends to, Stewart defended his position by saying “But it’s about absurdity and corruption.”
In a sense it is about absurdity and corruption: Stewart’s corruption is the act of veiling his own liberal activism in the light fluff of absurdity.
Amir graduated from Sheridan College with a Bachelor of Animation Degree in 2010 and was awarded a Certificate of Merit by ASIFA-Hollywood in 2009. He is currently finishing his Master’s Degree. He is also the creator of the cartoon representing this article.
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