When Comedians Attack

I'm going into recovery for my political news addiction after this election, and I've already reduced my consumption of the stuff to The Daily Show and random postings on friends' blogs, but I thought this excerpt of Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire was worth the download.

This episode has been spun as Stewart attaching Tucker Carlson, but actually he is attacking the show in its entirety. Like Michael Moore, Stewart's left populism goes over the heads of hacks who can only see the world in red and blue.

The best thing about this appearance is that, just when the news media was assimilating Stewart as its resident court jester, he goes all Old Testament on them and delivers a real denunciation. With this appearance Stewart has re-signified his irreverence: his comedy serves not to mock serious political discussion, but rather the utter shallowness that passes as serious debate these days.

The problem with Stewart's trick is that you can only get away with it once. Why waste it on Crossfire?