The Daily Show this evening featured a poignant 10 minute rambling and tearful speech from John Stewart. Maudlin, but who could blame him. He touched on some original points... how the recovery and rescue efforts exemplify MLK's dream of people being judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. He pointed out that no longer can a comedy news program dwell on luxuries like making fun of "sublimiable". And he ended by describing his view from his apartment in NYC. It faces south so the view used to be the WTC. Now... now it's the Statue of Liberty. Beautiful.

Yeah, I felt really weird watching it. On one hand, it's like it was too late - I've had my fill of the choked-up tearful hope and I'm ready, emotionally to move onto the next phase of this whole mess. It was also not all that well prepared, in that he rambled a bit.

But it was *SO* absolutely genuine, I just couldn't help but watch with rapt attention.

Had someone shown me a transcript, I would have made a retching noise and wished they would just make with the funny already, because we need that. Seeing it actually delivered was a totally different matter.

I actually missed the first few minutes cause I didn't realise there'd be a new episode this week. But what I did catch was extremely touching.

Stewart said that they wouldn't take for granted the "luxury" of satirical dissent. I hope this doesn't mean they are going to abandon political subjects. Satirical dissent is not a luxury in this country; luxuries are things that can be done away with in hard times, fluffy and dispensable things we trot out when convenient. Freedom of dissent is not dispensable in this country; it springs from fundamental elements of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Freedom of speech and respect for minority viewpoints are not luxuries; they are the foundation on which our country was built.

I don't think there's any danger of satirical dissent being abandoned. I think people are just going to be treading lightly for a while. We're scarred. It's only right to behave accordingly.

Besides, the lack of traditional dissent is more distressing. The Democrats have let some missile defense legislation go through that never would have passed uncontested if it weren't for Septermber 11. I hope they don't keep rolling over for these sorts of traditionally partisan issues.

BTW, nice post, Bullcrap. Almost makes up for the asinine Bush bashing. :)

-Tom

I think it just means they aren't going to take it for "granted" any more Bullcrap. Many countries don't have it, that's what makes it seem a luxury, even though I agree with you that it's essential. Then again, so is privacy, and to an extent, so is asinine Bush bashing. I hope we all remember that too.

-Andrew

I don't think Stewart was talking about the RIGHT to satirical dissent. I think he meant that we shouldn't take for granted those who would perform it. It IS a luxury to have a show like The Daily Show or Letterman CHOOSE to make jokes of our government officials, but it's a RIGHT for them to be ABLE to.

This may surprise some folks who know me - but I agree, I don't want a lot of legislation to go flying through without debate - even legislation that I want to be passed. While our system has become a ridiculous series of "nyah nyahs" in which each party automatically attacks the other in a desparate bid for individual power, it is still one of the strengths of our system that most legislation is debated and fought over.

Wow. Well, I just a clip of Jon Stewart's statement about the view from his apartment.

Wow. Not what you'd expect from a comedian, ya know?

...I thought the puppy was a nice touch.

Here's an article I posted about this, with links to the video:

http://www.postareview.com/article.php?sid=12&mode=&order=0