Every so often an email shows up in my in basket asking me to sign a petition for some worthy cause. But I did not get this one. And I’m pouting.
Initiated by Change.org, it asks the Commission on Presidential Debates to select Jon Stewart as a moderator for one of the 2016 Presidential Debates. According to an article in Salon. com today, nearly 90,000 people have signed it so far.
The Salon article includes a link to the Change.org web site. So, I immediately clicked on it and signed the petititon.
Change.org doesn’t specify a political party, but if I had my way Stewart would moderate at least one debate for each major party. Indeed I would ask him to moderate them all.
We desperately need his kind of clarity in today’s funky politics.
Of course I know that Jon Stewart is a comedian. He has been making me laugh for the past 16 years. But I am not looking for laughs this time. I am looking for common sense, curiosity and honesty. Stewart is the only current media star I can think of who demonstrates those qualities.
In today’s media world, all we seem to get is spin. That Fox News debate, for example, wasn’t that just a really, really big show designed to boost ratings and provide the Republican candidates with massive exposure?
And if you’re looking to the CNN debate to give you meaningful insights into the issues that matter, you’re in for a letdown.
With the kind of corporate ownership that exists in the mainstream media today and the bizarre exaggerations and fabrications of the fringe mdia, we are left trying to sort out the truth for ourselves as the sound and the fury resonate across the airwaves.
And there is already a lot to laugh at in this year’s campaign. Surely, you don’t take Donald Trump seriously, for example? To me, he’s just a big, fat joke!
What we need is another comedian to counter his nonsense, a gifted and insightful comedian – like Jon Stewart.
Perhaps in this toxic political environment, it’s too dangerous to tell the truth. Perhaps the only way to get away with it is to mask it as comedy – as the court jesters did in ancient times.
Perhaps, when all is said and done, we need a comedian to set us straight.
