"The Daily Show": Week of 7/28/14

[trow125]

7/28: Sonia Nazario (author – promoting book “Enrique's Journey”)
7/29: Sara Firth (former correspondent for Russia Today)
7/30: Maggie Gyllenhaal (actress – promoting Sunday TV show “The Honorable Woman”)
7/31: Aubrey Plaza (actress – promoting movie “Life After Beth”)

[Hanahope]

Look at all that estrogen!

[Fremde Frau]

The Sara Firth interview should be interesting.

[ABay]

Is she related to Colin? Could she give him my phone number...?

I would also accept a call from Peter Firth, or Jonathan Firth. I'm all for the Firths.

[dubbel zout]

Is she related to Colin?

 

Per Wiki, she is not. But Colin and Jonathan are brothers. I will accept the attentions of either Firth brother. Or both of them—I don't want to be the cause of family discord.

Edited July 23, 2014 by dubbel zout

[ABay]

Yes, and you can really see the resemblance between C&J if you look at Colin as Mr. Darcy and Jonathan as...I'm going to say Byron...on an episode of Highlander. It's all in the curls. And it would be said to break up the set. Peter is not related to them so it's not an acting dynasty like the Redgraves (are up to the 4th generation of them yet?).

 

ETA: I'm rambling. Too much caffeine...or sugar...or sugared caffeine. Walking away from the keyboard now.

Edited July 23, 2014 by ABay

[Jediknight]

Please let the show cover the Ray Rice suspension.  Please let it happen.  We've already had Michelle Beadle, Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd (When Skip and Cowherd are voices of reason that's a shock), Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic, and especially Keith Olberman eviscerating the NFL over giving Ray Rice only a 2 game suspension, I want to hear what Jon has to say.

 

Hell, if they talk about it, it would probably be the return of the choir.

[fastiller]

 I'm all for the Firths.

How 'bout the Firth of Forth?  I ask only b/c I love saying "the Firth of Forth."

[attica]

I stayed in a B&B right on the Firth of Forth last spring. I can testify that it's as awesome to wade in as to say!

[maraleia]

I might just fall over...a whole week of women guests. Maybe Jon's producers are trolling us and other sites that have criticized their lack of women guests.

[Fremde Frau]

Larry will be on tonight! I've missed him so much. From their Twitter account:

 

Tonight! Larry Wilmore explains why Black Captain America's gonna need that shield.

 

[Victor the Crab]

Between the police using assault tactics on African Americans, the situation in Gaza, and Sonia Nazario's account of refugee children fleeing Central America, the laughs were hard to come by tonight.

[Fremde Frau]

Well, that was a fairly depressing episode. It was interesting to hear Jon talk about his experiences in Jordan and how that has affected his point of view, but that interview was heartbreaking. Also, I loved seeing Larry again, but that bit seemed somewhat disjointed towards the end. I kept waiting for one of his usual knockout closers, given how weighty the material was, but it never quite made it there.

 

Wasn't that the flag of Saudi Arabia they were using? That kept distracting me. (EDIT: Never mind. That's the Hamas flag; I was expecting the flag of Palestine.)

Edited July 29, 2014 by Fremde Frau

[possibilities]

I'm really upset about the kids.

 

Does anyone remember the Sanctuary movement from the 80s?

[shok]

The show made me angry tonight. Jon was trying to make lame jokes about things that were NOT funny. He usually finds some humour in situations surrounding tragic occurrences, not about the tragedies themselves.

 

The interview started out to be interesting but lost me at the end when she tried to blame President Obama. He's not fucking trying to seal the borders. He has stated over and over again that these kids deserve due process and he's trying to get congress off their asses and fund the people needed to provide that due process for the kids plus aid for the countries they're coming from so that their living situations can be improved to lessen the need for them to try to escape but as usual Boner and his crazies are blocking it. Just so pissed off at that whole show.

[peeayebee]

My favorite part of the show was when Jon described old Times Square as "behookered." Otherwise, depressing and upsetting.

[Dagny]

My favorite part of the show was when Jon described old Times Square as "behookered." Otherwise, depressing and upsetting.

 

I was hoping he was going to show the NY Post photo that had a shocked Elmo in the background of the tussle.

[Victor the Crab]

All those years of Jon slamming CNN, and they haven't learned a thing. It almost makes me wish Jon's attempt to buy CNN would be successful.

 

Oh we'd like to think that Wikipedia line about Rummsfeld was true.

[Fremde Frau]

Saw this comment elsewhere, and I felt it followed up on Jon's last line perfectly, that our strategy for nurturing peace in the Middle East is much like the NRA's strategy for nurturing freedom in the US. That sounds about right. So our doctrine, then, is for mutually assured destruction at home and abroad. I suppose they feel that peace, freedom, and the American Way ™ will be under attack until every country and every home has gone MAD. Wonderful.

 

In lighter news, the segment on CNN was gold. #newcnnslogans and #newcnnshows are full of helpful ideas. Hee! CNN really should come with a warning label. Poor Jon! Those mashups were hilarious. There was one line that I particularly liked: "C'mon, man, seriously. You can tell me. It's CNN; no one's watching." I've seen the original 2010 clip (which led me to the delightful alternate World Cup bits between Jon and John), and it may be my favorite thing that they've ever said about CNN. I can't even pinpoint why I like that line so much, except that everything about Jon's delivery was perfect.

 

Anyway, I know the whole letsbuycnn thing is a joke, but I wonder if Jon is 100% joking or only 99.99% joking.

[ganesh]

So our doctrine, then, is for mutually assured destruction at home and abroad.

 

I think it's a left over zero-sum theory from the cold war. Things are far more complex than that, as we are seeing, so this methodology doesn't work. There's been a paradigm shift imo since the cold war so that thinking just won't work anymore. One of the main things is that there are subnational entities instead of states that are affecting events. 

[attica]

It's also porkity pork pork for all the defense contractors. That lobby will convince Congress that everybody should have arms, either by purchase or by aid. And that can't be stopped, you know, regardless of the unintended consequences. Think of the jobs! In your district!

 

No matter how cynical I get, it's never enough.

[cattykit]

The CNN montage was hilarious.  And pretty clear proof that Faux News, despite their whining, is not the only target of TDS.

[Fremde Frau]

Information about one of tonight's segments, from Twitter:
 

Some (now former) @michigandaily colleagues and I will be featured in a segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight. Check it out.

 
The Michigan Daily is the student newspaper for the University of Michigan.

[BookThief]

Whenever Jon misuses the word "bemused" a part of me dies.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

[eejm]

CNN: The Human Centipede of News.  

 

I love.  :)

[The Luvly Junkie]

I enjoyed playing my part for #LetsBuyCNN. I decided to check the website if they made any changes or even alluded to these "punny" suggestions...

And now I have a bad and nauseous feeling this will be the top story on tomorrow's show. Thanks, CNN, for brightening then ruining my day.

[Fremde Frau]

Politics in the US must be such a circus to people in other countries. I had to laugh a couple of weeks ago when Clinton said that we needed to present our national story more effectively. No, we need adults in office. Then our national story will take care of itself.

[shok]

Politics in the US must be such a circus to people in other countries. I had to laugh a couple of weeks ago when Clinton said that we needed to present our national story more effectively. No, we need adults in office. Then our national story will take care of itself.

 

It is. I am thankful every day that I live in Canada. It's not just the politics, it's the guns and the lack of health care and the racism and a lot of other things too.

[ganesh]

The thing that gets me is all the anti-science crap. There's no other country where people debate about passing laws whether to teach evolution in schools or whether human activity contributes to global climate change.

[attica]

I am assiduous in avoiding coverage of Israel/Gaza, but I'm going to watch this new Gyllenhall thingie. Maybe fictionalizing it will make it easier to bear? (Yeah, prolly not). Anyway, pretty people with British accents and spy-adjacent shenanigans = attica bait.

[cattykit]

Jordan's segment on the state of journalism was so sad but true.  Not to beat up CNN--hell, yes, to beat up CNN--but 95% of the stories on their website are what I used to expect only in tabloids.  And yet I doubt there is actually less news these days.

[Fremde Frau]

I'm glad they did a bit on the art of hyperbolic headlines that may or may not accurately reflect the content of an article. It's absurd that there is hardly a difference in style and content between tabloids and the actual news media on television. Print media is maintaining its standards, at least.

 

Do Jon and Stephen coordinate anymore, or do they sometimes overlap on an issue purely by chance? I remember reading somewhere that Jon looks over (or used to look over) Stephen's script for the day. I wonder if that still happens.

[Grammaeryn]

I used to work for a tax inversion company headquartered in Ireland. I didn't know it at the time. From what I remember, whenever taxes were owed, another subsidiary would "reimburse" the payor. So it's just a big game of shuffling money.

[LADreamr]

 

I am assiduous in avoiding coverage of Israel/Gaza, but I'm going to watch this new Gyllenhall thingie. Maybe fictionalizing it will make it easier to bear?

 

I have a bad feeling it's going to try to present the issue as two equal sides who can't get along.  That is just so not the truth

[alexvillage]

 

Print media is maintaining its standards, at least.

Are you sure about that? In the US? I cannot tell you how many times I write to the NY Times Public Editor to complain about the lack of ethics on what they print (yes, I read the Manual)

 

 

I have a bad feeling it's going to try to present the issue as two equal sides who can't get along.  That is just so not the truth

I am with you. Do you know who is producing it? That's a good guide on how much they will be biased

[Fremde Frau]

Are you sure about that? In the US? I cannot tell you how many times I write to the NY Times Public Editor to complain about the lack of ethics on what they print (yes, I read the Manual)

 

Yeah, that's a fair criticism. I guess my point was not to suggest that print media in general doesn't engage in improper conduct but more about their standards relative to "click bait" strategies of television media and tabloids.

 

I haven't seen last night's episode and I don't know if the Al Jazeera America segment was too late for them to comment on it, but the next time TDS covers immigration, I hope they include the "shoot to kill" policy that the KKK is proposing as a solution to children seeking refuge. The very courageous and professed Christian man in the video also suggests leaving a few of the corpses along the border, so that these vulnerable children realize that the US is not, in fact, a bastion of liberty and justice for all. I keep wondering how people can make these kinds of extreme statements and not be held accountable, but then I remember that people threaten Obama, political opponents, government officials, mothers, etc., all of the time with impunity. Gotta love how the First Amendment is interpreted so that threats made by white, self-styled Christian "patriots" apparently fall under the "obvious hyperbole" protection and any criticism of their speech is equivocal to--as Fox might describe it--a sinister silencing of real America.

[attica]

I knew nothing about Aubrey Plaza before last night. She's charming and funny! And so really does not look anywhere close to 30.

[marceline]

I always watch TDS online the day after it airs. My heart broke for Jon's excitement at the cease fire.

[LADreamr]

Me too.  There were casualties before the first commercial.  A dear friend of mine in Gaza lost eight members of her family.

[Victor the Crab]

I've been away for the last two days, and have just been catching up on some missed episodes.

 

Jon was in top form going after both tax dodging corporations and Republicans who think suing President Obama for doing what all presidents have the legal authority to do is the only right thing that matters. None of this miscreants have the good intention of doing what's right for America. It's amazing that the country hasn't fallen into a sinkhole of its own hubris created by these asshats.

 

I wasn't sure what to think of Jordan at first. But he keeps growing and growing on me everytime I see him. His story on how BuzzFeed is changing journalism for the worse is one of his best ones yet.

 

I was saddened to hear the 72 hour ceasefire didn't last much. I'm sure Jon will have something to say about his on Monday.

[HelenBaby]

Yeah, that's a fair criticism. I guess my point was not to suggest that print media in general doesn't engage in improper conduct but more about their standards relative to "click bait" strategies of television media and tabloids.

 

I haven't seen last night's episode and I don't know if the Al Jazeera America segment was too late for them to comment on it, but the next time TDS covers immigration, I hope they include the "shoot to kill" policy that the KKK is proposing as a solution to children seeking refuge. The very courageous and professed Christian man in the video also suggests leaving a few of the corpses along the border, so that these vulnerable children realize that the US is not, in fact, a bastion of liberty and justice for all. I keep wondering how people can make these kinds of extreme statements and not be held accountable, but then I remember that people threaten Obama, political opponents, government officials, mothers, etc., all of the time with impunity. Gotta love how the First Amendment is interpreted so that threats made by white, self-styled Christian "patriots" apparently fall under the "obvious hyperbole" protection and any criticism of their speech is equivocal to--as Fox might describe it--a sinister silencing of real America.

Great post. Although I find this hyperbolic speech abhorrent, I wouldn't want to live in a country where this type of thing is censored, when it should be ridiculed. That's what we don't have enough of--the talking heads who don't want to speak out against this attitude. It's fine to disagree, but there is no place in our society where this should be an acceptable way to speak about anyone. But we do need to shine a light on such ignorance.

[Wax Lion]

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed there wasn't any commentary on how this is journalism by free market. You make it all about money than serving a greater calling and the invisible hand of the market doesn't pick the highest quality stuff, it picks the most sensational pitch.

[Victor the Crab]

Jon talked recently about how U.S. companies are merging with foreign companies and then declaring themselves companies of that country as a tax dodge. Well there a potential deal that's sure to be a Whopper (no pun intended) as Burger King plans on buying Canada's Tim Hortons chain of coffee and doughnuts, then "relocating" to Canada as a way to avoid paying their fair share of U.S. taxes.

 

http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/08/25/tim_hortonsburger_king_deal_surprising_but_has_huge_upside_observers_say.html

 

A giant U.S. burger chain wants to buy an iconic Canadian brand - the second one in as many decades - so they can avoid paying their taxes to help keep America going. I'd call that a lose-lose on both sides of the border.