If I were calling the shots at MSNBC, I would mortgage the farm to get Jon Stewart on my cable channel. In prime time of course. I would reschedule either Chris Matthews or Chris Hayes to make room for Stewart.
I would not ask Stewart (top photo) to be funny, or do tricks or wave his arms about and shuffle papers aimlessly (the way Rachel does, for example). I would ask him to simply take the political scene apart piece by piece and put it back together again so that it makes sense. (If he feels the need to employ a little sarcasm to make a point, that would be OK, too.)
I would not want him to be “nuanced” (how I hate that word!). I would not want him to bend over backwards to be “fair.” I would not want him to give “equal time” to this or that special interest group or political party or some individual whose feelings might be hurt by one of his comments.
I would want him to examine what he sees and hears and reads, and tell viewers what it all means to us. And I would let the chips fall where they may.
I would warn those pesky TV “producers” that if they introduce any of their dumb gimmicks – as they do on Rachel’s show – they would be fired on the spot.
The way the producers have Rachel acting like a trained seal is insulting to us viewers. The woman is a Rhodes scholar for goodness sake! Not a dancing marionette!
I hear you thinking I’m crazy. You figure Stewart has bigger fish to fry now that he’s through with his Comedy Central gig. And you think he wants a break from the daily grind.
But I think it’s worth a try. He just might welcome the opportunity to play it straight for a change, to expose the tricks of the politics (and media) trade, to introduce some logic into media punditry.
Stewart is desperately neeeded in a world where George Will, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilley, those women on The View – and too many others to mention – are considered serious analysts.
Trust me, MSNBC, hiring Stewart would make a lot more sense than assigning that former Bush flack, Nicolle Wallace (lower photo), to cover Donald Trump’s shenanigans. We viewers are not all as dumb as you seem to think we are.
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