The Media Research Center has always hated Jon Stewart for being an effective exposer of bogus right-wing narratives, and when he returned to “The Daily Show” for a once-weekly hosting gig, the MRC predictably did not take it well. Alex Christy labored to downplay Stewart’s return in a Jan. 24 post:
As Comedy Central continues its search for a full-time host of The Daily Show, the network announced on Wednesday that former host Jon Stewart will return to host the program on Mondays, starting on February 12, through the end of the year and executive produce the show through 2025.
Stewart was the host of the show from 1999-2015 and presided over massive ratings for the network that have been on the steady decline. However, those ratings came with a cost, as Stewart’s clown nose on, clown nose off routine has done great damage to comedy and political discourse.
On one hand, Stewart and his political comedy talk show host descendants want to use their “platforms” to discuss issues that matter to them and use humor to get their point across in a way that a dull white paper or cantankerous cable news segment does not. However, whenever someone calls him out on the thesis behind the joke, he plays dumb because he’s “just a comedian.”
It’s a bad habit that is seen in Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel as well and it taught liberals that snark in and of itself can be a substitute for well rounded arguments.
The Daily Show has been hemorrhaging viewers since Stewart’s departure and the move to bring him back once a week may lead to an initial ratings sugar high.
The next day, Christy whined that others praised Stewart’s return:
The casts of the Thursday editions of CBS Mornings and ABC’s Good Morning America could hardly contain their excitement that Jon Stewart will be returning to host Comedy Central’s The Daily Show every Monday for the rest of the year beginning February 12. CBS was admittedly “Gaga” while ABC hailed him a “trusted left-of-center conscience” for his “devoted fans.”
During a profile piece on Stewart, CBS’s Vladimir Duthiers included an interview with Chris Smith who “worked with Stewart to write an oral history of his Daily Show tenure.” Smith hyped, “By the end of Jon’s time at the show he was a major player in the political conversation, and he wants to have a voice that’s heard far and wide in that conversation.”
Duthiers recalled Stewart’s brief Apple TV+ show before adding “Now his return to The Daily Show includes an executive producer title, and with it a likely vision for the show’s point of view with the presidential election in focus.”
That view is solidly on the left, both in Stewart’s time and since, but Smith still claimed that “Jon has always been smart enough and critical enough to poke holes in the lies and mistakes and hypocrisies on both sides.”
Christy concluded by further whining that Stewart told too many jokes about conservatives:
As Stewart takes over both in front of and behind the camera the number to watch is 78, that is the percentage of jokes The Daily Show directed towards conservatives in 2023. If Stewart really does go after “both sides,” that number should be quite a bit lower in 2024, but don’t hold your breath.
This from the guy who refuses to conduct an ideological joke analysis on Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld so all his liberal-bashing jokes can be similarly documented.
When Stewart appeared on CBS to promote his return, Tim Graham whined about it in a Feb. 12 post:
Just like ABC must tout Disney products,CBS Mornings on Monday hailed the return of Jon Stewart as the Maddow-style Monday-only host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Gayle King noted both networks are part of Paramount Global, and co-host Tony Dokoupil kissed Stewart’s ring: “You’re now located atop the Paramount mountain, sir.”
King gushed: “I’m wondering if you’ve missed us as much as we’ve missed you — somebody writes about you, about Jon Stewart. “Jon Stewart was a voice of reason in my generation. It’s great to see him returning. There has been no better host of The Daily Show since he left.”
Stewart played bashful at that Trevor Noah-dissing. King asked “What went into your thought process about, “I want to come back, and I only want to come back one night a week for now”?
[…]When they asked if he expected to have influence, Stewart played modest and suggested TV hosts don’t have the influence that full-time activists do. “I liken television to like, if you can occasionally provide air support to those on the ground who are actually doing the work. And so I don’t, I don’t view it as I really want to have an influence on this issue, election, things like that. It’s what we do.”
When Stewart critiqued the advanced ages of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden in his initial appearance, Christy tried ot make a big deal out of it in a Feb. 13 post:
Jon Stewart returned to the anchor chair of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show on Monday, where he lampooned both Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s age and some of their more infamous bloopers. This did not sit well with left-wing media outlets, who have become accustomed to late night comedians simply being one of them. However, when Stewart did briefly digress from age issues, it was clear he was still very much on the left.
When Stewart did digress to talk policy, it was about Biden’s recent remarks that Israel’s response to October 7 has been “over the top,” which struck Stewart as a massive understatement, “You know, I like how Biden describes Israel’s incessant bombing of civilians the same way my mother talks about the Super Bowl halftime show. ‘It was a little much. Did they need to be on roller skates?’ ‘Whatever happened to music? Using the song and people will love it, but with the abs and the twirling.’”
[…]However, Stewart also made sure to tell his audience that regardless of whether Trump or Biden wins, the country will not end, which couldn’t have sat well with the reviews. The Daily Beast senior editor Matt Wilstein lamented “using his old platform to tell Americans that their two choices for president are both not that different and equally terrible.”
Christy went on to declare: “The other four late night hosts have also made plenty of jokes about Biden’s age and mental acuities, but they are still very much to the left. Stewart is not that different, he just happened to debut on a day when Biden’s age was very much in the news.” Christy and his fellow MRCers have not commented much on Trump’s advanced age.