Anybody else detect a hint of "I need to get out of comedy" as in "I need to be on a real news show" or "I might even run for office" out of Jon Stewart last night? He was asking Paul Bremer why the Bush administration can't just admit that mistakes were made. He was being pretty diplomatic about it, even telling Bremer that his new book, My Year in Iraq was a start at getting the debate to match the facts. In fact, he even sympathized with Bremer for having a difficult, if not impossible, thankless job that required him to live in Baghdad.
When Stewart finally got down to asking Bremer about the disconnect between the plans, which called for a relatively quick and easy transformation, and the reality, which seems to be an ever-growing quagmire, Bremer pointed out that he didn't have the luxury of playing out the war in theory, in a think tank somewhere, or in some planning room, but rather, he had to deal with the real situation on the ground. Stewart replied that the plan for the war was created in theory... by think tanks... in a planning room somewhere and, by Bremer's own account, those theories looked nothing like the reality.
Stewart asked in several diplomatic ways why the administration didn't simply come clean and level with us. He tried to assure Bremer that we could handle the truth. At that point, Bremer switched from defending the administration's plans to defending himself, and finally, to being afraid of WMD in the hands of terrorists after having dealt with terrorism as a career for 25 years. (The same line of defense/justification for war we've heard all along... and the exact line Stewart had hoped to clear up in exchange for hawking Bremer's book on the show.) To this point, it was the typical, mild, respectful Stewart. Now is when I expected him to do what real news reporters don't - ask the question again since it wasn't really answered.
Stewart didn't do much to hide his frustration, but in a rare move of turning tail, instead holding Bremer to the question, Stewart gave up, pointed out that the show had just spent a 4 minute sketch on "taint" and that he wasn't going to put Bremer on the spot any more than he already had on this show. His gestures and his words were completely submissive. He figuratively threw up his hands and gave up on the show.
Bremer was very cool about it. He joined in on the taint joke as Stewart tried to end the interview and give the book one last pitch... and that was it... the first Daily Show I can ever remember just sort of fizzling out rather than leaving me with a sense of it being finished.
Is it over? Is he moving on to something more serious? Does he not remember that he's drawn more interest to politics than any real news show ever has? Is it not fun anymore? Does he still love me, but he's not in love?
I'm genuinely concerned. Hopeful, but concerned. What gives?
Sincerely,
Luth
2 comments:
I think you put your finger on it when you noted that JS really needed Bremer to be a "not-so-bad" guy in this scenario. He wanted Bremer to say the "plans" on paper didn't match the facts on the ground...which he did...so he could then ask him: well, wasn't that the problem? that a bunch of think-tank policy wonks dreamed up this thing in the first place? which he did.
Trouble is, when Bremer started ducking, JS had already let him get away with some pretty thick whitewashing in characterizing the plans. Bremer is a loyalist, after all. And JS really should have started asking the central question: why do you feel you owe these guys your loyalty? they screwed you, they think the American people are idiots, and they did it all from mahogany-paneled conference rooms in D.C. (some undisclosed, of course)
Beautifully put. I guess you'll have that when conducting real interviews. Too bad the real news gave up on that.
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