On this morning's "Reliable Sources," the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz's Sunday CNN show meant to dig into how the media did or didn't do their job on the past week's stories, one segment revealed how so-called RS oversight didn't even understand what one particular story was about.
This week, Jon Stewart had the just-about-to-announce presidential candidate, John McCain, on his Comedy Central's "Daily Show."
It was not their standard comic repartee, much of which I wrote about in "Tim Russert: Take A Clue From Jon Stewart." (http://www.opednews.com/articles/not_sh_steve_yo_070425_tim_russert_3a_take_a_.htm) Stewart drilled McCain to explain rationale behind the administration's, as well as his own, talking points attacking those who questioned the president's policies.
On "Reliable Sources," Kurtz said that McCain was "standing up for what he believes." Panelist and conservative talk show host, Blanquita Cullum, said that Stewart was all about doing an O'Reilly, Rosie, Trump, et al, in an attempt to increase his ratings.
No where in the segment did they come close to what really came out of the "Daily Show" interview: John McCain did not stand up for what he believes - if what he says is what he really believes.
Every Stewart question or statement regarding the Republican "undermining the troops" red herring was never responded to directly - or even indirectly - by Mccain. The former straight-talk expresser just deflected by moving on to another and altogether separate issue, never attempting to defend himself, mostly because that artificial and fallacious talking point is defenseless. As Stewart said, "it is almost criminal."
But nowhere in this week's "Reliable Sources" was a discussion of how Stewart did the job the MSM seems hesitant to do: hold politician's feet to the fire. And in this case, Kurtz's media watch-dogging, missed seeing the dog attempting to pee on the truth. Those actually watching that interview couldn't miss it.
Kurtz said that McCain "didn't necessarily lose" by his performance on this week's "Daily Show." Maybe, if you call not being able to justify your own "beliefs" not necessarily losing . But Kurtz not appreciating the importance of the job Stewart did and McCain's incapablity to "stand behind his beliefs," was his own loss.
Steve Young is the author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (www/greatfailure.com) and writes on political talk in his weekly "Lords of Loud" column.
