 So I have a clip that I want to share with you. This is pretty old. It is a clip from 2004 but basically CNN have this show called the crosstalk and it featured one Democratic pundit and one Republican pundit and John Stuart was a guest and One of the individuals who hosted this program was none other than Tucker Carlson Who went on to become the most popular news host in America? and What we are going to see here is John Stuart absolutely humiliate him and call him a hack to his face and You know Tucker Carlson. He tries he tries to push back a little bit but at the end of the day you can tell how embarrassed he was by John Stuart because They end things abruptly and cut to commercial break because what John Stuart was saying was making them look really really terrible Enjoy. You're a good comedian. I think your lectures are boring. Let me ask you a question on the news No, this is theater. I mean, it's it's how old are you 35 and you wear a bow tie? Yeah, I just so I do this is I know I know Let me just go now. Come on. Listen. I'm not I'm not suggesting that you're not you're not a smart guy Because those are not easy to time, but the difference is That this you're doing theater when you should be doing debate, which would be great It's not honest what you do is how honest what you do is perfectly partisan hackery and I'll and I'll tell you why I know you're on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery. Absolutely You're a god to be kidding me. You're on CNN say my the show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone call What is wrong with you? Well, I'm just saying there's no reason for you When you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy's butt boy to go ahead and be his blood boy I was absolutely his butt boy. I was so far. You would not believe what he ate two weeks ago You know the interesting thing that I have you'll have a responsibility to the public discourse and you fail Miserably, I think you need to go to one the thing that I want to say is When you have people on for just knee-jerk Reactionary talk. Well, I thought you're gonna be funny. Come on. Oh, no, I'm not gonna be your monkey What what I watch your show every day and it kills me I can tell you love it's so oh, it's so painful to watch You know Because we need what you do. This is such a great opportunity you have here to actually get Politicians off of their marketing and strategy. Yeah, it's someone who watches your show and cannot take it anymore I just can't like to have dinner with you. It must be excruciating Do you like lecture people like this and you come over to their house and sit and lecture them? You know, they're not doing the right thing that they're missing their opportunities evading the responsibilities if I think they are Oh, I would want to eat with you, man. That's horrible. I know and you won't but the thing I want to get your promise naked pictures. Yeah, we did. No, let's get to those Why can't this book? Why can't we just talk please? I beg of you guys. I think you watch crossfire We're gonna take it quick. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we've got commercials, please Stop in the rapid fire. Please Here we hope we think They tried so hard to change the subject he wouldn't let them. So what do they do they end the interview Immediately. Well, we've got to go to commercial break They're so transparent and now Tucker Carlson hosts his own show. He doesn't have to co-host it with a liberal So now he can just you know Kick off guests like that whenever he wants to at his own discretion. Nope done. Thank you But I mean John Stewart he had them pegged and really he was speaking to a broader Structural issue with CNN which is their fake neutrality that both sides are equal You know is climate change real or is it not? Let's have two people on to debate it That is horrible for discourse. It's horribly toxic because some issues. There's just There's not two sides. They're not debatable When it comes to the issue of climate change I unequivocally denounce debates related to the reality of anthropogenic climate change because to even Suggest that it's a debatable issue I think is inherently Destructive because that's not debatable the only folks who are trying to make it debatable our shills paid By the oil and gas industry So I don't think that we should play their game and buy into this idea That climate change is debatable or that civil rights are debatable. There's some things. That's not debatable What the tax rate should be that's debatable, right? That's debatable But when it comes to Actual important issues that have a significant impact on the future of the planet on our lives that's not so debatable and What John Stewart was doing was speaking to that here and he said look you're not debating your public hacks Because they really did have this opportunity if you have a liberal and a conservative talking that could potentially be constructive You can maybe have them find common ground, but that's not gonna work if you're just dealing with hacks I think that the only way that this format would work is if you get normal Americans one normal conservative one normal liberal and I'm talking about working people And you get them to share their ideas and you you change it every single week but when you get these like talking heads these Shills for their respective parties. What does that do? That doesn't give us any insight Into what working Americans need. It's not actually a real debate. It's fake It's all it's all political theater and that's what John Stewart called out there Now the one thing that I will say where I actually agree a little bit more with Tucker Carlson Is when John Stewart implied that you shouldn't really take him seriously sure he has a new show But I mean it's on Comedy Central. He's a comedian and it comes on before cranky anchors where it's a show about puppets crank calling people I don't actually agree with that I don't think that We shouldn't actually take John Stewart seriously I don't think that what he was doing was less important than any other traditional news outlet and I'll tell you why because John Stewart actually did do Real news and like it or not People took him seriously so comedian or not You don't get to use the but I'm a comedian excuse If you don't actually do a good job at what you are larping as so, you know I do think that he should have challenged John Kerry in the interview that he did So Tucker Carlson called him out for you know, basically giving him This softball interview I mean it's funny because Tucker Carlson does that all the time with politicians that he loves look at the Matt Gaetz interview and I don't even know like I don't think I've seen the John Kerry interview with with uh John Stewart, but I mean regardless if you are providing people with a particular service and they take you seriously I think that you have a responsibility to make sure That to the best of your ability you make them more informed and look John Stewart did inform people Back when he was still the host of the daily show Most folks who were younger my age millennials We got our news from John Stewart And it was great because he wasn't a Democratic Party hack unlike Trevor Noah He would actually attack Democrats and Republicans He was an equal opportunity offender, but he wasn't a fence sitter like there wasn't this Fake neutrality that he was trying to propagate is if Democrats and Republicans were the same He wasn't trying to make this false equivalence And so I'm going to take turns attacking Democrats and then Republicans He always approached things From I think an objective Liberal to left-leaning perspective and that's really what made his show refreshing And now I haven't seen the daily show. So perhaps it's improved But if you tune in the last time I watched it, it just seemed like more Democratic Party propaganda. I'll be it with A comedic twist, but ultimately what is important here? What message John Stewart was spreading is that mainstream media Is doing a disservice to people and now this clip is more important than ever Given how terrible Tucker Carlson has become. I mean, he's always been awful He's always been someone who uses white supremacist dog whistles, but lately he's just gone full mask off Doing straight up alex jones level conspiracy theories as it relates to the covid vaccines and masks You know, he is citing the great replacement theory. So Tucker Carlson almost single-handedly is making mainstream media even worse than it already was corporate media It was always bad having news be a business That's obviously going to create a conflict of interest If your goal is to make money and increase profits, then you know, you're not going to Make the news your priority. You're not going to make informing people your priority But Tucker Carlson, he took what was bad about corporate media And he made it even worse. He normalized Extremist white supremacist talking points And I've got to say, you know back then he was a little bit rough around the edges But now he's by far one of the most effective propagandists in America and he's the most dangerous In America and when I say he's the most effective propagandist, that's not me complimenting him That's me saying that when he spreads lies He does so in a believable way So unless you're informed or educated, you're not going to know You're not going to be able to see through his lies and understand the way that he's Nefariously and covertly trying to prime you to believe terrible things So look, I'll leave that there. I thought that this clip was great I might have even talked about it before on the program. I don't remember But I thought that now it would be really interesting to revisit it given How much Tucker Carlson has made the headlines and not the headlines that he's created but made headlines for being Really really terrible. So yeah, I'll leave that there. It would be nice to see John Stewart come back But honestly it might be good that he's gone Because given how things have been going if he were were around in 2021, I wonder if I would be disappointed in him I don't know. I know I used to love Colbert and now he is Not great So, uh, who knows but either way, you know, I thought it was fun to uh revisit this clip Tremendous