In the wake of charges that Donald Trump fraudulently overvalued his New York properties in order to get better deals on loans, right-wing troll (and militia-loving podcaster) Tim Pool made a big deal out of Jon Stewart, who had mocked Trump over this, selling a property for well over its valuation — and the New York Post ran with it. But it’s a stupid analogy, as Mediaite explained:
In no way was this the “exact same thing.” It is simply not accurate to say Stewart “overvalued” his property “by a staggering 829%.”
What’s happening here is Pool, [New York Post writer Mary K.] Jacob, and other critics attacking Stewart are conflating three different types of real estate values. Whether that’s being done through an innocent mistake or a deliberate effort to spread misinformation, we’ll leave it to the reader to decide, but they’re confusing 1) the actual market value of a property, or what someone would be willing to pay for it, 2) the property’s taxable value as assessed by a governmental agency property appraiser, and 3) documentation about a property’s value submitted to a lender for the purposes of securing a loan.
Trump got in trouble for committing fraud regarding that third category, the information the Trump Org submitted to lenders to secure loans.
[…]Back to the main point here: it’s incredibly common for there to be a vast disparity between a property appraiser’s assessed value and the actual real world market value for residential real estate across the country — plus multiple limitations under state law on how the government can value your property.
This stupidity, however, didn’t keep Media Research Center executive Tim Graham from devoting his March 29 column to repeating the Post’s bogus story:
On March 25, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart uncorked a typical not-so-funny sermon about how Donald Trump overvaluing real-estate properties was not a “victimless crime.” Trump has been found liable for fraud despite no banker or financier ever claiming Trump victimized them.
Then the New York Post reported talk-show host Tim Pool tweeted that in 2014, Stewart sold his 6,280-square-foot Tribeca duplex to financier Parag Pande for $17.5 million. But according to 2013-2014 assessor records obtained by the Post, the property had an estimated market-value at only $1.882 million. The actual assessor valuation was even lower, at $847,174.
“Records also show that Stewart paid significantly lower property taxes, which were calculated based on that assessor valuation price,” the Post reported, “precisely what he called Trump out for doing in his Monday monologue.” In his original tenure at Comedy Central, Stewart was making an estimated $25-30 million dollars a year for his satirical labor.
Stewart tried to mock people for comparing the two overvaluations and alleged under-taxpaying. His sarcasm was over the top: “OMG!! I’ve been caught doing something not remotely similar to Trump! I guess all I need to do now is start a fraud college, steal classified docs, bankrupt casinos, pay hush money, grab pussies, discriminate in housing, cheat at golf and foment insurrection and you’ll revere me!”
Liberal journalists energetically went to work on Stewart’s behalf, proclaiming it’s all “apples and oranges.” But Stewart clearly felt he could pompously mock Trump and no one would ever notice how he made out like a bandit. Why would Parag Pande pay so much more for a property than its assessed value? (Pande sold it in 2021 at a 26 percent loss.) Is it because he’s a Democrat who’s donated to Joe Biden and Cory Booker?
The liberal elites didn’t care. Jon Stewart is always beyond suspicion. Comedians are their most honored spin soldiers.
In an attempt to deflect from his bizarrely enthusiastic embrace of a seriously stupid point, Graham then huffed: “Conservative media outlets are making a point.” Still, he went on to insist anyway that, all evidence aside, there’s no difference between what Trump did and what Stewart did:
So remember when Jon Stewart makes fun of oafish millionaires and billionaires, and how they couldn’t possibly know what it’s like to be an average American who can’t exploit their wealth. Stewart never looks in the mirror. Add the dittos for the other Democrat millionaire jesters – John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and so on.
All the Democrat messaging machine tells us is how Stewart is such an admirable advocate for military veterans and 9-11 first responders. They’re all on the same team, and they are all about doing PR spin for each other. The most atrocious spin is that these outlets are the “fact-based” media in the “mainstream” of America.
Yes, Graham is mocking “fact-based” media even as he’s pushing an attack on Stewart that’s anything but fact-based and all about doing PR spin for Donald Trump. This doesn’t exactly do anything to improve the MRC’s credibility issues.