Jon Stewart

Paul writes:

First of all, I love the work that you do, and I have been a big fan of your cartoons and essays for a long time. You obviously push all the right buttons (no pun intended!)
I need to defend Jon Stewart though. You say:
“Still think Jon Stewart's cool? Consider this: he invited Goldberg to publicize his neo-McCarthyite tripe on "The Daily Show." He's never asked me. Or, to my knowledge, Aaron McGruder. Nor Jeff Danziger (the third cartoonist) referenced and slagged in the book.”
The one thing that you neglect to add is that, and this is just purely a subjective view, Stewart trashed Goldberg for the tripe that he published in his book, and basically pointed it out to be irrelevant, and clearly misdirected at the wrong people. You can see by Goldberg’s body language that he was obviously angered by Stewarts comments, and I think that goes a long way in pointing out the “with us or against us” mentality of those that would like to keep the public under their intellectual lock-and-key. I do agree with you that I would like to see more Ralls, Klien’s, and Chomsky’s on the show.
Thanks Ted! Keep fighting the good fight!

Word has it that Stewart went fairly easy on Goldberg, but that's not the point. The point is that he gave a hatemonger a forum that will help him sell many more books than he would have otherwise. A few insults aside, Goldberg should be pleased that he appeared on "The Daily Show." Meanwhile, books by progressives—far more intelligent books—die a dog's death due to poor sales.

Matthew wrote:

Still think Jon Stewart's cool?
Well, yes.
Consider this: he invited Goldberg to publicize his neo-McCarthyite tripe on "The Daily Show."
And then, in the deftly teasing manner that makes Jon so "cool", completely ridiculed Goldberg and demonstrated what a tripe-hyping fool the guy is. (Did you see the show?)

Again, all publicity is good publicity. Which is part of the reason I go on Fox. Liberal ideas languish in obscurity largely due to lack of good promotion and distribution.

Grayson says:

Hey man,

I love your cartoons and all your books (I have all of them exceptt "Latchkey Kids") and check your site daily to read the Rallblog. Before I knew about your website, I religiously read your column in MRR as well. I read your "Goodies" whenever I need to laugh my ass off, which is about twice a day. I swear, Roach Motel and Fatal Defenestration crack me up every time. Keep it up.

I do, however, disagree with you on John Stewart. I try to catch the Daily Show whenever I can between changing diapers and passing out from exhaustion after work. I agree that he tosses a lot of softballs to his guests (Colin Powell, Ed Gillespe AND Bernard Goldberg, especially). But overall, he does go places other "news" shows won't dare to. He's probably the only person on television who has actually said that Bush, McClellan and their cronies "we're lying" when they denied Rove, Abrams and Libby were involved in the leak of Valerie Plames identity. And he did slam Tucker Carlson and his crew of morons for not living up to their profession's standards on Crossfire that time. And you can't argue with his permanent labeling of Bob Novak as "The Douchebag of Liberty."
I think the fact that his audience is made up of mostly stoner lefties and NYC tourists detracts from the overall effect of his show. And after all, it's on Comedy Central so no one is going to take it seriously.
You gotta admit though, the Daily Show is fucking hilarious sometimes.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll keep reading it as long as you keep writing it. You're an inspiration to amateur journalists like myself.

I admit it. "The Daily Show" is hilarious sometimes...though not nearly often enough. And thanks!