Jon Stewart and Harvey Pekar (American Splendor)

[IHateFundies]

Jon Stewart pulled a Harvey on CNN. Back in the 1980s under Reagan and Bush Sr., the big corporations first started buying up the independent media companies. Harvey Pekar wrote the American Splendor comics, and appeared on David Letterman as a semi-regular guest, doing a Blue Collar Cynic act against David Letterman's Cool Yuppie Prep character.

After years of union busting and sending jobs to Mexico, when General Electric bought NBC, Harvey decided to use his 15 minutes of fame to make a statement. He came on Letterman in a Union shirt and dispensed with the jokes and confronted David Letterman and the audience about the corporate takeover of the media and the massive layoffs.

David Letterman freaked out just like Tucker Whatshisname freaked out on Jon Stewart. They even used the same metaphor - that of a rude guest at dinner. Letterman accused Harvey of "sneezing the hors d'ouerves" and "coming into someone's house and taking advantage of their hospitality" - just like Tucker Carlston sniped at Jon Stewart asking "what's it like to have you as a dinner guest, do you lecture your hosts?" (paraphrasing).

The analogy is obvious - by Harvey attacking the corporations paying for the Letterman Show, and Jon Stewart accusing the Crossfire actors of being "partisan hacks" and working for the "politicans and corporations" - they are biting the hand that feeds the actors.

The only reason that this election is even close - with Bush's consistent record of miserable failure - is because he had the corporate media defending him, making excuses for him, lying for him, and covering up serious crimes for him, because that's their job. The corporations who own CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN (why bother to mention FOX?) are doing just great under Bush, or at least they thought they would, and are committed to his economic policies of tax cuts for the rich, and paycuts for the middle class. Just because their actors are old, serious sounding white guys doesn't mean they have any credibility.

The comedians, satirists, bloggers - and trolls - provide better commentary, spin, emphasis, and analysis than CBS and Westinghouse, NBC, Microsoft and General Electric, ABC and Viacom Disney, and obviously Fox and Newscorp.

It's a sign of the times - Comedy Central and the Onion are more honest and makes more sense than the "real news". I wonder if the people living under Soviet Empire felt the same way about Pravda and Tass?

Instead of the same old newsreaders and actors - Dan Rathers, Ted Kroppel, Peter Jenning, etc., why not have Oprah Winfrey or Jon Stewart moderate the debates? They are the better actors, and the ratings for serious political discussions would skyrocket.

[Chicago Democrat]

1. Yes he did! The gods adore when mortals shake the foundations!

Divi Jon Stewart!!!

[Philostopher]

2. Let's hope what Stewart did doesn't wind up ...

with him being as marginalized as the Letterman gambit left Pekar. I remember seeing him on there, but I didn't see the night he went off on Letterman, so I didn't know what had happened until we saw 'American Splendor' last summer. Let us hope (desperately) that Viacom doesn't get pissed off at Stewart and shave him off The Daily Show -- they might destroy TDS entirely, since I get the impression most of the writing staff agrees with him. I need TDS, I refuse to watch the 'coalition of the shilling' on the cable news shows, and most of our local news is all happy talk or news about what's going to kill me this week.

[Cleita]

5. It wouldn't really matter if Comedy Central dumps him.

Jon has become such an idol that others will pick him up very quickly like maybe HBO?

[Philostopher]

8. Good possibility.

And they wouldn't edit it when Jon says the same stuff Mr. Nownow and I say when we see some of this crap in the news. Must not have hurt Maher much -- he's still around.

Would give us a reason to sub to HBO or Showtime, though!

[IHateFundies]

10. Whatever happens, Jon Stewart is now taken seriously

He's proven himself to be way more than just some comic, he's as credible as the major media players, with a smart, well educated, knowledgable audience. Just the people the advertisers want.

[DerBeppo]

3. good point

one tiny flaw though, Viacom owns Comedy Central. If it was a matter of corpratism destroying real media, why is he given practical carte blanch?

maybe it's because it's cable and isn't at the forefront, or at least wasn't. now that there is more intrest in the show and they have become a must visit on the political whistlestop, we'll see what kind of pressure viacom will put on jon and the show.

[IHateFundies]

4. he makes money

and he doesn't ever attack advertizers as far as I remember, mostly just hits politicians. And his audience is cynical anyway - since it's comedy and has no "credibility" they can say things that the "mainstream news" can't.

Damn, I always knew Jon Stewart was funny, who knew he had integrity too?

[Cat Atomic]

9. Comedy often comes in under the radar.

Not to mention the fact that The Daily Show quickly became enormously popular with a highly sought after demographic. It makes money. And after all, "it's only jokes".

[TrustingDog]

6. Welcome to DU, IHF... amazing post, right on.

:yourock:

[enigmatic]

7. Harvey's a great guy..

And I'm proud to call him a fellow hometown Clevo-boy..