In Bob Cesca’s piece for Banter Members yesterday he took Jon Stewart to task for going on a bizarre rant about the coronavirus lab leak theory to Stephen Colbert.
Given Stewart’s points are being circulated in right wing media circles, do you think he screwed up? Did Stewart make any legitimate points worth mentioning, or is he completely off the wall? Be keen to get your nuanced thoughts below. - Ben
I think he made a lot of good points, to be honest. I have my suspicions about the origin of the virus as well. However, I don't think Colbert's show was the place for it. He did seem kind of off - and not in a good way. Everyone keeps saying it's satire, but honestly, there was nothing satirical about it. I was so stoked that Colbert was back in front of the live audience and that Jon Stewart was the slated guest. His rant kind of took the joy out of the moment. All I could think was that he's been away from the camera/stage for too long and can't get the comedic timing quite right.
Yeah, I mentioned that to Bob in his piece yesterday. Since he first announced his return to the Ed Sullivan show with a full live audience, Stephen Colbert was like a kid eagerly awaiting Christmas morning. And he looked and sounded so happy to be back in his element Monday night. But Jon Stewart's strange spiel took away from Colbert's happy return that night. It even looked like Colbert was in shock over his mentor's strange opinion!
It's not really a conspiracy theory anymore though. There's been great reporting by Vanity Fair, WSJ, New Yorker, etc. etc. with original investigative reporting.
And beyond that, WHO takes it seriously as a concern. Macron, Morrison, Merkel, and Trudeau also support looking into it further.
Now I'm not saying this definitely happened, but there's a lot of obvious questions here, and to wholly dismiss it as a conspiracy theory is in my view intellectually dishonest. I'd recommend the VF article by Katherine Eban, which gives a decent overview.
Overall, I think the left needs to look at it a bit more objectively. It's very unfortunate that this is a popular view with the redhats, but we shouldn't wholly dismiss it just because of that, and ignore any serious reporting and scientific investigations that are ongoing.
I personally hope it's not true, as it would not do good things for geopolitics, or even the future of virology. But, that's neither here nor there.
Yeah, I think they need to do as much research on this as possible. The only reason why I worry about Stewart doing this kind of thing is because he's a) not a scientist and b) his words can be used by the right wing media complex to promote whatever batshit crazy thing they want to feed their audience. Stewart was reckless IMO. I think it's probable that we'll never know about Covid 19's origin but I support a thorough, unbiased investigation.
Ok, who wants to get into whether Covid-10 could have actually been a lab leak? (I'm not saying it was, but there is evidence to suggest it could have been).
It's not so much as whether the virus came from a lab or not. The right is trying to frame it as if the Chinese government deliberately created it to unleash upon the world, never mind that it took down hundreds of thousands of its own people in doing so. These bad faith idiots want to push this narrative in order to claim their false God Drumpf was correct in casting blame on them, which has led to the AAPI community getting harassed and attacked.
I'm not sure Jon Stewart thought that was the reasoning behind it. But the Right Wing Noise Machine™ sure want to believe it to be so!
The punchline didn't really land, and the set up was too long. I believe the punchline was " I have been locked up too long and will believe anything " At least that is what I hope it was. I do like Colbert response, what is wrong with you. I am paraphrasing.
I think he absolutely f*cked up. If he was serious, he sounds like a lunatic. If he was joking, he pulled a Poe and he failed to make it clear, at all, that he was joking. Either way, all he did was helped the right in their crusade to spread hate and rage.
Even -if- the lab leak story is true, and there is very little to support and a lot more against it, the story the right is pushing is that it was intentional and therefor Trump and the GOP were right about everything and the 500,000 people they killed are not their fault.
That is the -only- reason they care about the lab leak story: To divert blame away from the mass murder they deliberately committed.
Jon Stewart helped them advance that goal. Good work, Jon.
For me, it was not what he said, it was how he said it. Colbert is supposed to be his friend and he just screamed over him vs having an actual conversation. That is not a friend. It's abusive. It is teaching the world bad, fox-news-just-scream-over-everyone-to-be-heard habits. Stewart has always been a bit that way, and I never much cared for his comedy for that reason. He stooped to their level, they lapped it up and spun it to "Look even crazy leftie John Stewart agrees with us that it was released on purpose and he forced dumb Colbert to listen." It was not a good moment in television.
I already stated my opinion about that show to Bob yesterday. The only thing I'll add is that it's a good thing Jon Stewart stepped aside when he did. A lot of us, myself included, were upset when we first heard about it. But it seems it was for the best. He knew when to leave before his best before date expired, which is a hell of a lot more that can be said about some late night hosts who I won't mention!
I think he made a lot of good points, to be honest. I have my suspicions about the origin of the virus as well. However, I don't think Colbert's show was the place for it. He did seem kind of off - and not in a good way. Everyone keeps saying it's satire, but honestly, there was nothing satirical about it. I was so stoked that Colbert was back in front of the live audience and that Jon Stewart was the slated guest. His rant kind of took the joy out of the moment. All I could think was that he's been away from the camera/stage for too long and can't get the comedic timing quite right.
Yeah, I mentioned that to Bob in his piece yesterday. Since he first announced his return to the Ed Sullivan show with a full live audience, Stephen Colbert was like a kid eagerly awaiting Christmas morning. And he looked and sounded so happy to be back in his element Monday night. But Jon Stewart's strange spiel took away from Colbert's happy return that night. It even looked like Colbert was in shock over his mentor's strange opinion!
It's not really a conspiracy theory anymore though. There's been great reporting by Vanity Fair, WSJ, New Yorker, etc. etc. with original investigative reporting.
And beyond that, WHO takes it seriously as a concern. Macron, Morrison, Merkel, and Trudeau also support looking into it further.
Now I'm not saying this definitely happened, but there's a lot of obvious questions here, and to wholly dismiss it as a conspiracy theory is in my view intellectually dishonest. I'd recommend the VF article by Katherine Eban, which gives a decent overview.
Overall, I think the left needs to look at it a bit more objectively. It's very unfortunate that this is a popular view with the redhats, but we shouldn't wholly dismiss it just because of that, and ignore any serious reporting and scientific investigations that are ongoing.
I personally hope it's not true, as it would not do good things for geopolitics, or even the future of virology. But, that's neither here nor there.
Yeah, I think they need to do as much research on this as possible. The only reason why I worry about Stewart doing this kind of thing is because he's a) not a scientist and b) his words can be used by the right wing media complex to promote whatever batshit crazy thing they want to feed their audience. Stewart was reckless IMO. I think it's probable that we'll never know about Covid 19's origin but I support a thorough, unbiased investigation.
Ok, who wants to get into whether Covid-10 could have actually been a lab leak? (I'm not saying it was, but there is evidence to suggest it could have been).
It's not so much as whether the virus came from a lab or not. The right is trying to frame it as if the Chinese government deliberately created it to unleash upon the world, never mind that it took down hundreds of thousands of its own people in doing so. These bad faith idiots want to push this narrative in order to claim their false God Drumpf was correct in casting blame on them, which has led to the AAPI community getting harassed and attacked.
I'm not sure Jon Stewart thought that was the reasoning behind it. But the Right Wing Noise Machine™ sure want to believe it to be so!
The punchline didn't really land, and the set up was too long. I believe the punchline was " I have been locked up too long and will believe anything " At least that is what I hope it was. I do like Colbert response, what is wrong with you. I am paraphrasing.
It really didn't land. That's why Bob went after him because it was unclear whether there even WAS a punchline.
https://brucemajors.substack.com/p/are-we-all-fly-over-country-now
I think he absolutely f*cked up. If he was serious, he sounds like a lunatic. If he was joking, he pulled a Poe and he failed to make it clear, at all, that he was joking. Either way, all he did was helped the right in their crusade to spread hate and rage.
Even -if- the lab leak story is true, and there is very little to support and a lot more against it, the story the right is pushing is that it was intentional and therefor Trump and the GOP were right about everything and the 500,000 people they killed are not their fault.
That is the -only- reason they care about the lab leak story: To divert blame away from the mass murder they deliberately committed.
Jon Stewart helped them advance that goal. Good work, Jon.
For me, it was not what he said, it was how he said it. Colbert is supposed to be his friend and he just screamed over him vs having an actual conversation. That is not a friend. It's abusive. It is teaching the world bad, fox-news-just-scream-over-everyone-to-be-heard habits. Stewart has always been a bit that way, and I never much cared for his comedy for that reason. He stooped to their level, they lapped it up and spun it to "Look even crazy leftie John Stewart agrees with us that it was released on purpose and he forced dumb Colbert to listen." It was not a good moment in television.
I already stated my opinion about that show to Bob yesterday. The only thing I'll add is that it's a good thing Jon Stewart stepped aside when he did. A lot of us, myself included, were upset when we first heard about it. But it seems it was for the best. He knew when to leave before his best before date expired, which is a hell of a lot more that can be said about some late night hosts who I won't mention!