When
The Daily Show started tonight, Jon Stewart had a secret that the
studio audience didn't know...but that the viewing audience already knew,
since the show is broadcast much later than it is taped and so his news had
been all over the news and social media all evening.
Sometime later this year, at a date not yet
specified, Stewart is stepping down as host of The Daily Show.
The tributes to him all over the media and news shows this evening made you
feel as if he had died.
First Robin Williams, then Stephen Colbert,
and now Jon Stewart. It's definitely the end of an era.
I was not a fan of The Daily Show for
the first few years, but Ned goaded me into checking it out and I was
immediately hooked. Stewart jokes that his is a "faux news" program
and reiterates time and time again that he is not a newsman and yes,
that's true. He doesn't go out and find news, but he reports news he
finds on other sources, and he interviews newsmakers, and in so doing he has
created an entirely new genre of news reporting, one which holds the feet of
everyone to the fire, who takes no prisoners, and whose facts, when checked,
are almost always spot on. He may have had a glitch or two in the past
16 years, but I don't remember any. It seems that I read once that the
two programs which had the least factual errors were Rachel Maddow and
The Daily Show.
He reports the news in an entertaining
fashion, but always with a biting edge that does not suffer fools gladly.
Or maybe he does suffer fools gladly, since he has so much fun pointing
out the errors in their messages.
What will we all do without Jon Stewart?
We will survive. We survived last summer, when he took off to direct
his first movie (I knew then, in my heart of hearts, that he was getting
restless and would soon leave for other pastures -- maybe not always
greener, but different.)
Then, he left the show in the capable hands
of John Oliver, who now has his own show on HBO, and is doing well...and can say all
those words that Comedy Central has to bleep out of The Daily Show.
Stewart is making a very wise decision,
though all of us fans are in mourning this evening. He is going out on
a high note. He's not going to stay too long at the fair, but he is
leaving the show, leaving people clamoring for more, not sticking around to
the point where everyone is wondering if maybe he's lost his edge.
As much as I hate change, and as much as I
have loved The Daily Show and look forward to it...daily...I wish him
well and congratulate him for a very long, very successful roll of the dice.
His announcement at the end of tonight's show
was very emotional and, as he fought tears, I had tears running down my face
as well. But hey, I cry at supermarket openings and Hallmark card
commercials.
He's not gone yet. It may be July, it
may be December...he doesn't know, but he will leave a legacy behind that no
one will be able to match, at least not for a long time.
"Mommy, please make it stop," Lester seems to
be saying.
You can see that the snow mountain has
reached the top of Jeri and Phil's porch...fortunately they are up off the
ground by several steps, otherwise their windows would be covered.
And Boston is set for two more storms to hit
later this week.
I feel so sorry for them and for everyone in
New England who is trying to cope with this incredible snow season.
1 comment:
My neck of the woods has been below-zero temperatures for more than three weeks. Record breaking cold.
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