McCain Madness

Just wanted to comment a little on all the John McCain discussion going around (inspired mostly by Howard Kurtz's obsession with covering it blow-by-blow in his Media Notes). I caught the interview with him on the Daily Show a couple weeks ago when McCain was going to speak at Liberty U. and Stewart told McCain that he was killing him. It was possibly the most absurd interview I've ever seen. I've been a huge McCain fan for a long time, and I still think he does a lot of good things in the Senate, outside the spotlight, that people tend to overlook (see my Lobbying Reform post of March 30), and I was really quite tolerant of his whoring himself to the Bush campaign in '04 as a matter of political necessity. I don't necessarily want to jump on the anti-McCain bandwagon, because I feel like a lot of it is sour grapes by people who never liked him and were just looking for a good excuse to vent. But I have to say he's coming awfully close to losing me, and if he keeps pushing for evangelical Christian support, he'll do just that. McCain has fought so hard and so long to maintain his integrity, I really can't express how disappointing it is to see him sell his soul now...

Fare Thee Well, Crossfire

Well, howdy-do, turns out that new CNN President Jonathan Klein agrees with Jon Stewart and has decided to scrap Crossfire, saying "I think he made a good point about the noise level of these types of shows, which does nothing to illuminate the issues of the day". I wonder if we'll hear anything about this on the Daily Show... :)

More on Jon Stewart, Comedian Extraodinaire

You might think this post is about Jon Stuart Leibowitz's appearance on 60 minutes tonight (CBS News). Nope -- although it was fairly entertaining (Stewart said the slogan for 60 Minutes should be: "May Cause Drowsiness"). Rather, I am curious whether someone can tell me what the heck "hitler massaging" means. Cordry made a reference to it in a funny sketch that can be viewed here (check out the "Let It Fly" video, compliments of Comedy Central).

My best guess is that to "hitler massage" means to compare one's opponent to the most infamous villain of our time. Maybe Cordry will let us in on his own private joke soon.

Kurtz on Stewart

Howard Kurtz, one of Big Media's best analysts (over at WP), has this to say on Jon Stewart, one of Big Media's best critics.

Re: Shooting Gallery

Among the storm of blog and big media coverage of Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance, I found this metacoverage of the story interesting. Apparently there were more downloads of the show just from IFilm than there are viewers for an average episode of Crossfire. That's not to mention the 1,100 Bit Torrent seeds, some of which have climbed to the top of the charts on torrent sites. Wow. The internet is neat. It is sort of amusing that the guy in the article doesn't know why CNN isn't distributing the clip themselves. Has he actually seen the show?

"Crossfire" Turns into Shooting Gallery

Holy Moly (BitTorrent). Funny Man Gets Angry, Confronts Media Circus.

Re: This Is Your Brain on Jon Stewart

There's good interview with Jon Stewart online from Fresh Air yesterday.

This is your brain.... This is your brain on Jon Stewart.

Read this. Then watch this. Seems fair and balanced to me.

Jon Stewart's Commencement Address

Just a quick link here, since this came up over the weekend. It's a good one.

Who Says There's No Quality Programming?

Here's Jon Stewart's take on Tuesday's primaries and Bush's plans to investigate the WMD intel. The Back In Black segment listed there is pretty good too. Makes me wish we hadn't cancelled all our cable channels... Oh, and don't miss this segment on the David Kay statements before the Senate.