Prattling Before the Pratfall

The Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) was a huge success — a quarter of a million people huge. It was obviously a response to Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore America, and I don’t understand why Jon Stewart won’t acknowledge that. I know he didn’t feel well during his interview with Rachel Maddow a few days ago, but I’m still surprised by how many of the points he made were exercises in mental “gymnastics” (I’d like to use another word, but I’ll resist the temptation).

Stewart apparently felt slighted by Bill Maher’s criticism of the rally. I suppose that could be taken as a sign of respect for Maher, whose style is too snarky to do what Jon does, and his appeal isn’t as broad, so he never could have gotten 250,000 people to gather together. Maybe Maher is jealous of Stewart’s success. Maher sure was delighted when he was at the center of an election recently, with his video clips of Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell.

The moments with Maddow when Stewart was joking he did fine, but when he got into the particulars of how he views political media, he got lost in his own internal dialogue. He was particularly bogged down in his discussion of how Bush got us to invade Iraq. Stewart seemed to be saying that Bush’s fervent belief that Saddam Hussein must have had WMD somehow absolves the former President of blame. He really lost me 35 minutes into the interview, with the line, “It’s true depending on where you start the pursuit.” He had to go all the way back to FDR and the internment of Japanese-Americans to find a moral equivalent to Bush not taking the chance that Iraq wasn’t actually a threat??

In the past, Jon Stewart has taken the media to task for not doing its job, and for failing to ask the tough questions. Then he got CNN to cancel the rancorous show Crossfire because it was just a lot of shouting. His complaint with MSNBC doesn’t seem to be with the content, as much as the way Olbermann and Maddow present it. Stewart’s insistence on having meaningful interviews after the jokes and skits on The Daily Show attracts a surprising array of guests, but he doesn’t have a monopoly on style or substance.

I wouldn’t say that Jon Stewart has let success go to his head, but the gist of his attitude is, “I’ve got it right, and the rest of you are just poisoning the political well by shouting from opposite ends of the political spectrum.” If Stewart wants quieter, less emotional, discussions, then he should look beyond cable TV and promote the always excellent PBS News Hour. He could have brought a copy of that network’s guidelines to read during the interview with Rachel. It’s interesting that Leher included the comment, “I am not in the entertainment business.”

• Do nothing I cannot defend.
• Cover, write, and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
• Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
• Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
• Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
• Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
• Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
• Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions.
• No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
• And finally, I am not in the entertainment business.