COMMENTARY | As Jon Stewart pointed out on his Comedy Central program, "The Daily Show," on Tuesday, June 28, everyone at Fox News must have "got the memo." Apparently it was time to turn the accumulated propagandistic power of the Fox News Channel against the comedian, who, while skewering various issues and people on his four-night-a-week show, often takes particular aim at the conservative quasi-news channel (only part of their programming is actual news) for their foibles and misstatements. After a little back-and-forth in the past week since Stewart's appearance on "Fox News Sunday," where he asserted that Fox News viewers were the most "misinformed" viewers, then later built a verbal wall of erroneous statements and stories presented and repeatedly perpetrated by Fox News, the Fox News collective decided that their best shot at the "liberal" comedian was to question his fairness and attempt to label him a racist.
Really? That was all they had? But were they serious?
Instead of going after Stewart's obvious liberal leanings (or perhaps retracting and apologizing for all the misstatements and misleading information they have presented their viewers for years), Fox News anchors, analysts, and commentators ran with the story that Jon Stewart just might be a racist because of his "Amos and Andy" impression of Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain during a segment lampooning Cain during one of his campaign speeches.
In the segment, Stewart showed a clip of the Atlanta businessman speaking before an audience, complaining about the size of pieces of legislation. He said that bills were just too long and if he was president, he would not sign a bill that was over three pages in length. Stewart, after the clip, donned a voice mimicking that of Cain, joked that he wanted treaties that fit on a cereal box and the State of the Union will in the future be delivered via fortune cookie.
Cain himself appeared on Fox News and told Juan Williams that being mocked with the "Amos and Andy dialect" was "a bit much." When Williams brought up the possibility of someone accusing him of playing the race card, Cain said he wasn't playing the race card and understood that Stewart was a comedian, he simply took exception to Stewart's characterization of him and belittling his ideas.
But Fox News wasn't satisfied with letting the race angle go...
As Stewart himself revealed on "The Daily Show," commentator after contributor on Fox News Channel questioned whether or not he was a racist in an effort that he referred to as trying to reveal him as the bigger "a**hole" in the public butting of heads. So Stewart, noting that he let his own staff go after him while searching for video clips, presented a segment of the comedian mimicking and mocking politicians and others, from African-Americans to Jews to Caucasians, from President Obama to President Bush.
Clearly, had the Cain remarks been made in isolation, then there may have been grounds for the intense speculation that Stewart might indeed be a racist. But they were not. Were the remarks mocking? Of course they were. And even Cain said he realized that Stewart was attempting to be amusing, although he did not appreciate the tone. Were the remarks unfair? In an attempt to make a joke, where is that line drawn? And "Amos and Andy dialect"? Has Herman Cain listened to himself recently? Stewart's impression of him may have been more spot on than his quacking while impersonating former vice president Dick Cheney.
But what of an entire network bringing their 24-hour network to bear on a single individual? How "fair and balanced" is that?
Still, Jon Stewart seems more than willing to meet them on the media battlefield. Besides, he has precedent on his side. We all know how the story of David vs. Goliath ends. The Jewish guy wins.
35 comments