October 28, 2004
Jon
Stewart vs. the Political Pundits
Political
Satire 101
By
ALAN MAASS
WE’RE
SUPPOSED to live in a “beacon of democracy,” with
a highly developed political system that makes us the envy of
the world. So why is the host of a self-described “fake
news” program responsible for many of the few-and-far-between
moments of honesty in this year’s endless, mind-numbing,
soul-deadening election campaign?
Jon
Stewart and his fellow comedians at Comedy Central’s Daily
Show are the unlikely stars of Election 2004. Their half-hour
show--a satire of a nightly television news show that appears
Monday through Thursday nights--has increased its ratings by 20
percent over last year as the presidential campaign has ground
on toward Election Day. Stewart and nearly 20 other people who
write or appear on the show are also responsible for the country’s
best-selling book--America
(The Book), a hilarious parody of the textbooks that grade
school students continue to endure in government and history classes.
But
Stewart’s notoriety reached new heights last week when he
routed the puffed-up windbags on CNN’s political “debate”
show, Crossfire.
Stewart
went on Crossfire to promote the book, but he refused to play
along when blowhard hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala tried
to clown around with him. Instead, he slammed Crossfire and the
whole media machine for serving as a giant echo chamber for the
dishonest, cynical sound bites of the powerful.
“Right
now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations,”
Stewart said, as Carlson tried to shout him down. “You’re
not too rough on them. You’re part of their strategies.
You’re partisan--what do you call it--hacks.” Thanks
to the Internet, the
15-minute segment has been watched and savored by millions.
The
Crossfire appearance goes straight to the reason of why Stewart
and the Daily Show are so popular. With the corporate journalism
organized around flattering the politicians, instead of challenging
them--no matter how outrageous the lies or how bloated the rhetoric--Stewart’s
“fake news” ends up being more truthful about the
reality of U.S. politics than all the Crossfires and Hardballs
piled up in a great steaming heap.
John
Kerry and the Democrats do get off easier--the show definitely
saves its venom for the right wing, especially the strutting liars
and warmongers of the Bush administration. But the Daily Show’s
best moments are when it exposes the absurdities of the Washington
system as a whole--and that inevitably means dishing up shots
at both pro-corporate parties, since both are responsible for
propping it up, even if the Republicans are more outrageously
corrupt and cynical about it, especially at election time.
The
same themes come across in America (The Book). Designed as a fake
textbook, it comes complete with the standard semi-helpful illustrations
and charts (“The Cabinet: Yes Men of Freedom”), discussion
questions (“If you lived in a monarchy, would you rather
be a king or a slave? Why?”) and suggested classroom activities
(“Disenfranchise a Black student”).
The
usual explanation of “how a bill becomes a law” is
made much more realistic with the inclusion of “amendment-sneakin’
time,” in which lawmakers load on pork-barrel provisions,
and “passing lobbyist muster,” where the hired hands
of Corporate America “assist our representatives in any
last-minute changes in language, content or intent necessary to
insure their reelection funds.”
In
a chapter on the media, the book abandons all pretence in a heartfelt
rant. “These spineless cowards in the press have finally
gone too far,” reads the first draft, before, uh, editorial
revisions. “‘Was the president successful in convincing
the country?’ Who gives a shit? Why not tell us if what
he said was true? And the excuses. My God, the excuses! “Hey,
we just give the people what they want. ‘What can we do,
this administration is secretive.’ ‘But the last season
of Friends really is news.’ The unmitigated gall of these
weak-willed...You’re supposed to be helping us, you indecent
piles of shit!”
Stewart
and the Daily Show writers get in their election-year shots in
a special 24-page section--plus a pullout feature that could have
been produced by Socialist Worker: a boxing poster for a match
pitting “Skull vs. Bones: The Thrilla in Vanilla. This time,
it’s presidential.”
There
are some misses when the book stoops to stupid and sometimes offensive
stereotypes--something that seems to happen especially often when
the subject roams beyond the borders of the U.S. And as on the
Daily Show, Stewart and his fellow writers tend to be cynical
about anyone associated with politics, including progressive and
left-wing activists outraged by the very hypocrisy that the book
points out, but committed to doing something about it.
But
if your spirits are dragging under the weight of the hypocrisy
and lies of this miserable election, you’ll want a copy
of America (The Book) on hand for election night and after.