| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Daily Show: Exclusive - John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 1 | ||||
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Two things strike me about this interview. John Yoo is frustratingly evasive in it. It doesn't strike me as deliberate, but for someone who's supposedly an expert in this topic, he seems unable to succinctly state his arguments. Particularly when talking to a layman he should be able to respond to the gist of the question and not get caught up in legal specifics of words chosen at least until the main point is made.
Second, it really is amazing that John Stewart solved the access problem (that conservatives won't come onto his liberal show) by being an excellent forum to sell a book. And there's no way conservatives would put up with Stewart's (polite yet uncomfortable) interview unless it really sold books. I guess the Daily Show audience is particularly literate
Sure, some of these same people go on morning news shows or others, but they don't get grilled like they do on the Daily Show. I'm sure Matt Lauer doesn't prepare for a segment by reading legal briefs for two days as Stewart said he did for this. Rachel Maddow does similarly incisive interviews but doesn't (yet) get the guests that Stewart does and Olbermann doesn't get them at all.
Ok, here's the opening segment:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Fright Club | ||||
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Update: Here's Kevin Drum's take.
1 comment:
Unfortunately, I suspect that Yoo's arguments on executive branch power (ie virtually no limit in wartime) will be used again by subsequant presidents. I only hope that they have higher ethics than the Bush administration. Politicians should be required to view the Justice videos at Harvard with Michael Sandel (http://www.justiceharvard.org/ ). At least then they might realize they're morally wrong if not legally/constitutionally wrong.
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