Jon Stewart really wants to be taken seriously. He was a comedian once. Then came “The Daily Show.” And now, after a six year absence from television, Jon Stewart has decided that he needs to be at the center of attention again, so he has a new program called “The Problem with Jon Stewart.”
But is this new show “The Problem – with Jon Stewart,” or is it the answer to a question as in “the problem with Jon Stewart is…” Like, the problem with Jon Stewart is he actually believes that he is right all the time.
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On Sunday night Jon Stewart was interviewed for the closing of the New Yorker Festival. To prove that he is an expert on everything, and therefore justify his insistence on hosting yet another political show in which he tells the world how he knows best about everything, including matters about which he clearly knows nothing, like Israel, Stewart for some reason spoke about what is known in America today as “Cancel culture.”
He was probably thinking that he needs to remind people of his political slant. But one wonders why he did not simply attack Israel again.
But let’s back up a bit. Remember, this is a man who never really did his homework, while expecting everyone to take for granted that he was erudite and truly knowledgeable about every imaginable issue. However, if his so called reporting about Israel is an example of his concern for getting the details right, then he is clearly no journalist, no expert and no know it all.
Or maybe, when it comes to Israel, Stewart deliberately cherry picked his information and only looked for proofs of his own opinions about the country. But, if this is so, then that would make him inconsistent, inaccurate and inexcusable. Stewart clearly viewed Israel through the eyes of a bitter former Hebrew school kid who, as a middle aged man, is still trying to rebel against something.
Anyone who heard Jon Stewart talk about his own religion over the years knows that not only does he know little to nothing about Judaism, is embittered about having to eat matzo sandwiches in school on Passover, and yet, for some reason, thinks that because he was born Jewish he is therefore an expert on the religion.
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There were so many examples of his biased and ignorant statements on Israel over the years that there is only time to recount one such instance here.
In one installment of the Daily Show, Stewart criticized a world conference on free speech for inviting countries that were far from democratic to take part. He of, of course, included Israel in this list. “Even political cartoonist jailing Israel was invited,” he said.
Well, guess what? Believe it or not, none of that was true. When looking at the picture of the report that Stewart based his claim on, one could very briefly see that it came from Al Jazeera. Wow! Using Al Jazeera as a credible source for news about Israel is kind of like taking a used car dealer at his word.
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Here is the truth. A man who claimed to be a political cartoonist was, in fact, arrested in Israel. But he was not a professional, nor did his arrest have anything to do with any political statements on his part. He was arrested returning from Jordan at the border crossing and found to be holding thousands of dollars in cash. The money was for the man’s brother, who was a member of Hamas. The money was for terrorism.
Like Woody Allen, and so many other Jewish American celebrities, Stewart acts like he must condemn Israel for just about anything because he is embarrassed about his Jewish identity. And many times Stewart decried that people were forced to retract criticisms of Israel after being criticized themselves for their statements. So maybe there is a cancel culture, but only when it comes to Israel.
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Go get em Isiah!! Thanks for your insight and passion. https://t.co/JOh1Mbmsgo
— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) September 30, 2021
On so called cancel culture, Stewart said that it does not exists. He said that it is something blown out of proportion by certain people in talk radio and TV news to get ratings.
“People that talk about cancel culture never seem to shut the fuck up about it,” Stewart exclaimed. “Like, there’s more speech now than ever before. It’s not ‘you can’t say it,’ it’s that when you say it—look, the internet has democratized criticism.”
Stewart said that all that is happening now is that other people get to have their say and respond to statements that they feel were wrong now that everybody has access to the information, and a platform to be hear, on the internet.
You know something? Jon Stewart must be right. There is no such thing as canceling people over their words. If there were, then the all so powerful Israel lobby in America which dominates the Congress would have had Stewart canceled a long time ago.
