Thursday, October 21, 2004

Memo to Crossfire

Jon Stewart has a lot of nerve, doesn't he, calling his hosts on Crossfire partisan hacks?

How in the world can he, in good conscience, come onto the program and confront Carlson and Begala with what Crossfire viewers already know?

Crossfire is great entertainment. The format is terrific for stirring passions without challenging audience opinions. It's not a secret.

However, the hosts didn't make up the format, they're just making a living. Stewart's ire should be directed toward CNN, who elected to put on another "news" show which accepts sound bites in lieu of substance. That this allows our politicians to frame public discourse in narrow and emotionally loaded terms while avoiding accountability is beside the point. We Americans don't really care about that stuff, do we? It's not as if it's relevant to our daily life, is it?

So keep up the complicity fellows. You make the miserable news and D.C. mendacity fun!

And Mr. Carlson, a word of advice. Never heckle a professional comedian.


If there's more, it's here.