Hallelujah! He’s back — lending the most insightful commentary to the important issues of the current American milieu and renewed hope in our collective future.
Approximately 9-years-ago (when Stewart signed off from the Comedy Central airwaves) I wrote an essay entitled: Say It Ain’t So Jon.
It was then I posed the question of whether or not his considerable social influence (recall The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear) made the-powers-that-be uncomfortable (there were reportedly 215,000 people at that rally)…I mean, who would walk away from a $28 million-a-year-job and the sizeable influence that he had accrued?
At the time I wondered if “someone” made him another offer he couldn’t refuse.
But a-couple-of-years-back — Jon made a foray into Apple TV with a series called: The Problem with Jon Stewart — which didn’t seem to get any traction and, thankfully, only had a 2-year run.
Hopefully that is all water under the bridge and he can again exert his fearless persona into those aforementioned critical issues of the day! He seems a more effective crusader at the helm of The Daily Show.
On The Daily Show episode that aired April 15, Jon mentioned the real reason behind the atrocities being committed on both sides of the Israeli/Hamas conflict: the never ending American thirst for oil. More than once Jon has suggested this dynamic is the core reason for the ongoing Middle East tragedy — not religion. I happen to agree with him.
And while I certainly haven’t performed a thorough content analyses of how other media pundits are framing the Middle East conflict — I DO know that Jon makes the most sense to me — and it is comforting (if not validating) to have a public intellect like Jon saying the same things I do (but far more humorously!).
In his April 22nd monologue, Jon exposed the insipid banality of contemporary journalism — as news desks attempt to create stories of interest with nothing of interest in them (sparked by the Trump courtroom circus naturally). Jon also suggested that we are so desensitized by the bullshit stories — that when something pertinent and relevant comes along — we don’t even notice. Another of his educated opinions that I am in total agreement with!
Also in that episode of The Daily Show — Jon interviewed Salman Rushdie. They didn’t go too deep into Rushdie’s thematic concerns (Islam or Judaism) as they plugged Rushdie’s latest book, The Knife, detailing the assassination attempt on Rushdie (by a fanatical Shiite loyalist) and Rushdie’s subsequent recovery.
Jon obviously enjoys interviewing Rushdie…
All I can say is: welcome back Jon Stewart, and, keep up the good work! May you instill your new batch of reporters with the same zealous acumen as you did Stephen Colbert and John Oliver. I don’t know how much you may have influenced Trevor Noah and his crew — suffice to say they did an admirable job holding down the fort in your absence!
I will do my level best to keep up with you!