We’ve got a date at 8 p.m. Pacific, Monday-Thursday: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the two most dangerous men on television.
Two years ago, Stephen Colbert stood less than twenty feet from George W. Bush and verbally dismantled him at the White House Correspondents Dinner, during a time that very few in media (besides Jon Stewart,) showed the courage to speak up, much less in Bush’s presence. If you’d like to watch the video, please go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879. Jon Stewart is the good cop to Colbert’s bad cop. Those who appear on Colbert’s show know what they’re going to get. Jon’s targets don’t feel the twin swords of his biting wit and unassailable logic stuck between their ribs until it’s much too late.
Okay, fine, I’ll admit it: I love them. I’ll keep paying that DISH Network bill, because “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are two shows I think perform a necessary service. They inform, as well as making me laugh till soda shoots out of my nose.
The following warmed my heart. It’s too bad it’s now public knowledge, but it’s nice to know Jon Stewart puts his money where his mouth is. He’s learned about the war from those who fought it, instead of news reports or the minions dispatched to do his research. The mental picture of Jon and a soldier sitting in a hospital room, making each other laugh, is a sweet one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/27/daily-shows-stewa_n_93719.html
Turns out the comedian has been quietly visiting soldiers at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals, trips he began in 2004 to better understand the Iraq war. “I felt that I was living in a world of theory,” he told the audience, “but I hadn’t touched the reality and the humanity of it.” The first patient he met was “funnier than I was” — and Stewart’s been a regular ever since.
Stewart told the Post, “I certainly get a lot more out of it than they do…If anything, it’s made me angrier… You can be for the war, against the war, but you can’t be uninformed about it. To see the human cost is part of the equation.”
The human cost is incalculable. It’s not just those who don’t come back. It’s those who come back and can’t resume their everyday lives due to injury or illness. In a time when the current administration believes that cutting VA funding (yet again,) is a great answer to their budget woes, every one of us needs to stand up for those who have made unimaginable sacrifices in our names.
-S
Hooray for Jon for being committed to our injured troops. Both shows are informative, funny, and not afraid to ask tough questions of their guests. The authors are good, too.
Comment by Western Gal — March 27, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
God bless Helen Thomas and all who sail in her. Och, strat, I’ve watched that vid before, and even then, I spend some of the time under the desk — I just can’t imagine being as brave as Colbert was.
Jon and Stephen are lovely men and true friends of democracy. As long as you’re producing guys like them, you’ll be ok, rough as things sometime look.
And does Jon have great hair or what?
Comment by skdadl — March 27, 2008 @ 6:51 pm
I have sometimes wondered if people, who have slapped the Support Our Troops stickers on their cars realize, the devastation of lives caused by this war. Stewart doesn’t grandstand and knows the true cost of this debacle.
And he’s cute too.
Comment by Liz — March 28, 2008 @ 7:44 am