There is a writer talking about Jon Stewart's performance on Crossfire in a blog. Here's some of the things he said....

1. Stewart picked the wrong targets. By directly challenging Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, the hosts of a tired old show that no one watches, Stewart came off - as I said earlier - as something of a bully and a bore. That doesn't mean Stewart has to shut up unless he can wangle an invitation onto Meet the Press. (And wouldn't it be sweet to see him get in Tim Russert's face?) It does mean that Stewart would have been better served by criticizing the mainstream media in general, even to the point of asking Begala and Carlson whether they agreed with him, and to join with him. Not that they would have, but so what?

2. Stewart needs to be more self-aware. By offering serious media criticism, and then throwing up his hands and saying, in effect, "Hey, I'm just a comedian" every time Carlson took him on, Stewart came off as slippery and disingenuous. Sorry, Jon, but you can't interview Bill Clinton, Richard Clarke, Bill O'Reilly, Bob Dole, etc., etc., and still say you're just a comedian. The Daily Show is a hybrid, and a brilliant one at that. Yes, it's funny, but it's also truer than most real news shows, which is one of the reasons that people watch it. Stop pretending otherwise.

I left a comment on the blog....

"Stewart picked the wrong targets."

Seemed pretty clear to me he was talking about the media in general. He picks on Crossfire specifically because they do lame shows for ratings and entertainment rather than get serious debate going, but that's because he was on their show!

"Stewart needs to be more self-aware."

You miss his whole point. Jon has a choice, be funny and draw a huge audience, or get serious and alienate them. The problem is, they tout Crossfire as a 'serious' show, but lean toward entertainment. The Daily Show is supposed to be funny!! They do an admirable job, and if along the way the audience starts to think seriously about the issues raised on the show, I cannot for the life of me see how this is a bad thing. The benefits of his audience being more aware far outweight the consequences of failing to ask a 'tough' question of John Kerry.

Here's another news article about him...

To say his is just a comedy show is a cop-out in a way. He's gotten so much power. So many people look to him that you can't really be the kid in the back throwing spitballs."

Ummm, yes, he can, and does. And, ironically, he's got more people thinking about the issues than any of the other media outlets!!! They can criticize all they like, but the truth is there in plain view. He does a better job getting people serious about the issues, and he's not even supposed to!!!