It's generally fun but as always I wanted him to be better. I hate how he cuts himself off in mid sentence and then goes in a different direction. He's too quick to second guess the motivation for a question and too quick to cut off discussion. He did in this wonderful part, but Wallace never follows up (I wonder why), "The embarrassment is that I'm given credibility in this world because of the disappointment that the public has in what the news media does," he said. "Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers? The most consistently misinformed? Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll."
Will Bunch wrote in Salon No, Jon Stewart, you're not just a comedian. I think they're off the mark a bit. Stewart isn't wrong when he says he's just a comedian, it's a statement of his intent. He's used his platform to push for some things, most notably the 9/11 first responders, but he's stayed on the sidelines for most other things. Bunch is missing the point when he calls the DC Rally "largely pointless". People wanted it to be a political event, but it wasn't, it was a comedy and music event as Stewart and Colbert intended.
Stewart is funny and personable and because of his work he's pretty well informed on politics. There are many who would like him to do more with those traits, but he's not walking in Al Franken's shoes just yet. Still I thought his opening segment last night was particularly good at highlighting parts of his Wallace interview and then skewing the rest of the news media:
Update: James Fallows has more.
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