Pundits! Pundits! Pundits!
Talking Points! Talking Points! Talking Points!
Blah blah blah!
It never seems to end, but the truth never begins. I wonder so often how we as a whole have given up the process of independent thoughts or stances. We have talking points or should I just simply say...whatever it takes to get me what I want.
So...there is Crossfire...one of my favorite shows for awhile. Then I started to ask questions to solve what I thought were the problems of today. Then I got angry, if I can do this why cant they. Then anger left, hate became necessary, why haven't they tried to solve anything.
I guess someone else thought the same...
Jon Stewart's appearance
On October 15, 2004, Jon Stewart appeared on the program and, in a pointed discussion with Carlson and Begala, disparaged the format and the politically shallow arguments that it led to. In Stewart's words: "It's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America ... Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America." Stewart's main criticism was that the program failed its responsibility to the public discourse and indulged in "partisan hackery". Carlson tried to counter Stewart's criticisms that Crossfire was just part of the political system and wasn't asking truly probing questions by leveling criticisms against Stewart's own recent interview on The Daily Show with presidential candidate John Kerry, saying that Stewart wasn't harsh enough on Kerry. Stewart expressed suprise that Carlson would compare the parody-based Daily Show with the journalistic standards on a professional news channel like CNN, and commented on the absurdity of "looking to Comedy Central for standards of journalistic integrity".
Throughout the interview, Stewart's questions about journalistic integrity were ignored and responded to by Carlson and Begala criticizing The Daily Show rather than addressing the criticisms of their own program. Stewart cuttingly pointed out that "You're on CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls!" Carlson then referred to Stewart as John Kerry's "butt boy". At one point, Carlson abruptly cut to commercial by turning away from the Daily Show host and towards the camera, stating, "I do think you're more fun on your show, just my opinion." Stewart quickly replied, "You know what's interesting though? You're as big a dick on this show as you are on any show."[1]
Following his appearance, transcripts and live stream footage were released on the Internet and widely watched and discussed. The episode itself had 867,000 viewers (the average number of viewers Crossfire had per episode in the previous month was about 615,000).[2] As of April 12, 2008, the 13 minute 30 second clip had over 3,960,873 views on iFilm, making it the third most popular video of all time on that web site.[3]
On October 15, 2004, Jon Stewart appeared on the program and, in a pointed discussion with Carlson and Begala, disparaged the format and the politically shallow arguments that it led to. In Stewart's words: "It's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America ... Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America." Stewart's main criticism was that the program failed its responsibility to the public discourse and indulged in "partisan hackery". Carlson tried to counter Stewart's criticisms that Crossfire was just part of the political system and wasn't asking truly probing questions by leveling criticisms against Stewart's own recent interview on The Daily Show with presidential candidate John Kerry, saying that Stewart wasn't harsh enough on Kerry. Stewart expressed suprise that Carlson would compare the parody-based Daily Show with the journalistic standards on a professional news channel like CNN, and commented on the absurdity of "looking to Comedy Central for standards of journalistic integrity".
Throughout the interview, Stewart's questions about journalistic integrity were ignored and responded to by Carlson and Begala criticizing The Daily Show rather than addressing the criticisms of their own program. Stewart cuttingly pointed out that "You're on CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls!" Carlson then referred to Stewart as John Kerry's "butt boy". At one point, Carlson abruptly cut to commercial by turning away from the Daily Show host and towards the camera, stating, "I do think you're more fun on your show, just my opinion." Stewart quickly replied, "You know what's interesting though? You're as big a dick on this show as you are on any show."[1]
Following his appearance, transcripts and live stream footage were released on the Internet and widely watched and discussed. The episode itself had 867,000 viewers (the average number of viewers Crossfire had per episode in the previous month was about 615,000).[2] As of April 12, 2008, the 13 minute 30 second clip had over 3,960,873 views on iFilm, making it the third most popular video of all time on that web site.[3]
As a direct result of Stewart's criticism [1], in January 2005 CNN announced that it would not be renewing Carlson's contract. In a news release containing the announcement, CNN CEO Jonathan Klein indicated that he wanted to change the tone of shows on the network. Shortly thereafter it was announced that it would be canceled as a freestanding series, possibly to become a shorter, "gentler," segment of Inside Politics [2]. Its last episode aired on June 3, 2005 and the Crossfire pundits began appearing on Inside Politics the following Monday before relocating to that show's successor, The Situation Room. However, the GWU Crossfire set remained in use for the CNN weekend series On The Story, which had an audience interaction format.
On hearing the news of Crossfire's cancellation, on his own show Jon Stewart quipped "I fought the law, and the law lost!"[3]
On hearing the news of Crossfire's cancellation, on his own show Jon Stewart quipped "I fought the law, and the law lost!"[3]
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