Perhaps no actual journalist has been accorded the kind of public adulation that has preceded this week’s exit of fake newsman Jon Stewart.
New Yorker Editor David Remnick weighed in, deploying elevated language to describe Stewart in terms that would probably make the comedian bristle. Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s “State of the Union,” spent nearly five minutes on a report examining his impact. The Boston Globe used terms like “brilliant,” “savvy” and “damning” in a retrospective on Stewart’s legacy.
But the praise isn’t just for yuks. By satirizing the news and holding both politicians and journalists to account for their words, Stewart and his staff became incisive traffic cops whenever they spotted hypocrisy, laziness or inanity.
That’s why more such tributes will undoubtably follow before the week is up — including this one, from reporters and faculty members at Poynter. Below, you’ll find some of our favorite media moments from Stewart’s career of skewering the news, newsmakers and newsrooms.
Al Tompkins, senior faculty for broadcasting and online journalism
Sure Jon Stewart is known for taking the news clips, especially from Fox News, and poking fun at flip-flops and insensitivity.
But sometimes his show took on newsmakers face to face. After the stock market meltdown of 2008, Stewart confronted CNBC anchor Jim Cramer and demanded to know why the financial network didn’t see the crisis coming. Stewart accused CNBC of being in bed with the very banks and financial institutions that caused the crisis.
Katie Hawkins-Gaar, digital innovation faculty and former CNN iReport editor
Getting made fun of by Jon Stewart is a journalist’s rite of passage. Which is why we were over the moon when he skewered CNN iReport shortly after its launch in 2006. “Come on, CNN, you’re asking for a lot here. What’s the payoff for us?” That Wolf Blitzer joke will forever be burned into my retinas.
Jon Stewart’s first show after 9/11 is memorable for me, though I didn’t see it at the time because I was living out of the country. He said “There’s no other way, really, to start the show than to ask you at home the question that we’ve asked the audience tonight and that we’ve asked everybody that we know here in New York since September 11, and that is, are you OK?” He acknowledged a bit of self-media criticism in starting the show the way so many others had by talking about 9/11, but he still offered relief through laughs.
Stewart’s most cutting moment of media criticism didn’t come on his show, and it wasn’t lobbed from the comfort of his New York studio. It came when he sat down with pundits Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala to discuss partisan panel shows on the set of “Crossfire.” Stewart’s appearance might even have hastened the show’s demise. It was canceled (for the first time) a year after Stewart’s appearance, with then- CNN president Jonathan Klein saying he agreed with the comedian’s general attitude toward the show.
Do you have a favorite media moment from “The Daily Show” or its host? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @Poynter, and we’ll include it in this post.
