Heard many comments about Jon Stewart's "brutal" attack last Friday while a guest on CNN's Crossfire - especially the interaction between Stewart and Tucker Carlson.
I was not impressed.
Stewart came off as a surly interloper with a message: vote for Kerry.
Oh, come on! Don't act surprised! Stewart's act was not even thinly disguised as an attempt to chide the 'Bush supporters' for taking their position while trying to send the message that it is THEY who - in Stewart's words - 'are hurting America.'
THIS after we have had to suffer through Michael Moore and F-911; Barbra Streisand and her mumbo-jumbo gibberish; Sean Penn and his visit to Saddam's Iraq; the Dixie Chick's BS; Madonna's anti-Bush moans; Linda Rondstadt freaking out onstage; Tim Robbin's fanatical rants; Susan Sarandon's anti-troops screed.......
THIS after we have been forced to listen to Al Gore; Al Sharpton; Howard Dean; Dick Gephardt; John Kerry; Terry McAuliffe; Hillary Clinton; Nancy Pelosi; John Edwards.......Dan Rather; CBS; ABC; CNN....AND MORE.....all scream, rant, tirade, preach, and exaggerate claims about President Bush???
We are to believe that Tucker Carlson and his ilk are to blame for the hateful rhetoric that has been brewing since the 2000 election?
We are supposed to think that Terry McAuliffe's Goon Squad, that is now mobilized to REALLY steal an election, is the fault of Republicans?
We are to believe that Jon Stewart thinks that we are stupid enough to buy his rehearsed pablum about the 'evil Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' while they are registering 6,000+ felons in Colorado?
Tucker Carlson is right.
According to the article: Carlson noted that many of the great comedians kept their political opinions to themselves, not for fear of offending anyone, but because it could hurt their art.
"You're selling out," he said. "If you are a satirist or an acute social observer, and he (Stewart) is, and all of a sudden you suspend disbelief on someone or suck up rather than prod or poke someone, people will look at you and say, 'Even if I agree with you, I don't like it,'" he said.
Which is what most of Hollywood has overlooked throughout this entire saga: we don't care what your political belief is - we are here for the performance. Entertain us; scare us; mystify us - your art is our diversion.
And, believe me, diversion is what we need most right now...and what is most lacking right now.
DR
