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"The Daily Show": Week of 2/9/15


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2/9: Patricia Arquette (actress – promoting movie “Boyhood”)
2/10: David Axelrod (author – promoting book “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics”)
2/11: Colin Firth (actor – promoting movie “Kingsman”)
2/12: DARK!

Week of 2/16: DARK!

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I can't believe they're STILL promoting Boyhood. I know Arquette will probably win the Oscar for it and that's why she's on, but holy crap. She'll be the 3rd person to have come on TDS to talk about it.

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I have never liked Brian Williams and seriously always thought he was a pompous douchebag, so clearly obsessed with himself. Frankly, I was always highly annoyed at Jon's friendship with him (him and Bill O'Reilly always left a bad taste in my mouth when they left the set). I wonder what Jon thinks of him now.

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Jon once said that the Comedian's Code of Conduct required him to make fun of everyone, friend and foe. So if Jon can go after his old housemate Anthony Weiner for taking dickpics of himself while in office, then I would expect him to do likewise with Brian Williams for fluffing up his war journal credentials.

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I have never liked Brian Williams and seriously always thought he was a pompous douchebag, so clearly obsessed with himself. Frankly, I was always highly annoyed at Jon's friendship with him (him and Bill O'Reilly always left a bad taste in my mouth when they left the set). I wonder what Jon thinks of him now.

I share your sentiment

 

 

Jon once said that the Comedian's Code of Conduct required him to make fun of everyone, friend and foe. So if Jon can go after his old housemate Anthony Weiner for taking dickpics of himself while in office, then I would expect him to do likewise with Brian Williams for fluffing up his war journal credentials.

If I remember well, Jon did not believe it was Weiner at first. And he did not have Weiner in the show after that, has he? I am just wondering if he has another ready-to-go last minute guest

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 I am just wondering if he has another ready-to-go last minute guest

 

Yeah.  If only Jon had some other good friend.  Perhaps someone whose career he had been instrumental in launching.  Perhaps someone who is currently between jobs, and might be able to squeeze in a last minute interview on short notice, at least for the next several months.  Someone that lot's of TDS fans would tune in specifically to see.  I can't think of anyone off the top of my head, but it seems like there must be someone out there that would fit that description.

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Yeah.  If only Jon had some other good friend.  Perhaps someone whose career he had been instrumental in launching.  Perhaps someone who is currently between jobs, and might be able to squeeze in a last minute interview on short notice, at least for the next several months.  Someone that lot's of TDS fans would tune in specifically to see.  I can't think of anyone off the top of my head, but it seems like there must be someone out there that would fit that description.

       (ahem) Ollie-Scone. Just started his second season of Last Week Tonight, tapes only once a week. I bet he has plenty of time to stop by and say hi to his former boss. Otherwise maybe other TDS alumni around the NY area. Or perhaps Colber- oh scratch that. 

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I was going to say something about how Jon finally delved into the Brian Williams mess, and how the rest of the media has no business to judge him after they failed to question the Bush administration's decision for America to invade Iraq - And Megyn "Santa Claus is white, deal with it" Kelly has more credibility? Please!

 

But what I really want to say is HOLY FUCK, BASSEM YOUSSEF TOTALLY CRUSHED IT TONIGHT!!! That had to have been the best debut of a correspondent/contributor TDS has ever had. Now that he's in America for a while as a resident fellow at Harvard, I hope we get to see more of him.

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But what I really want to say is HOLY FUCK, BASSEM YOUSSEF TOTALLY CRUSHED IT TONIGHT!!! That had to have been the best debut of a correspondent/contributor TDS has ever had. Now that he's in America for a while as a resident fellow at Harvard, I hope we get to see more of him.

 

This. So MUCH this.

 

He was incredible. LOVED him. And yes, let's see a lot more of this guy!

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Don't give a shit about Boyhood.  Do give a shit about Brian Williams.  Yeah, he could come across as a douche, but he was a cute douche.  (What?  I'm shallow)

 

Plus, there was that crack he made on The Nightly News about marriage being under attack, which cause a minor bru-ha-ha in the gay community.  Ironically, his daughter is on Girls, a show filled with sex addicts (from what I understand).

 

I guess I feel more of trust betrayal because, as head anchor of The Nightly News, a certain rapport develops between anchor and audience even though they've never met. 

 

Maybe Lester Holt will take over full time; I don't know?  But with this and what happened with that other guy who hosted Meet The Press being forced to resign (I think) and Ann Curry being fired, one can only wonder what the hell is going on in NBC's news department.  Is it run by monkeys, by any chance?

 

And ditto for me in wanting to see more Bassem Yousseff.  Could they give him his own show after The Daily Show?

Edited by bmoore4026
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I loved the MOZ. I couldn't tell what the guy had said, but I got the feeling the reporter had had interactions with him before his report started.

 

Loved the whole segment on Bri and then the media's history with the Iraq war.

 

I like Patricia Arquette. She's very articulate and funny, and I admire how she doesn't bow to the pressures of being perfect looking in Hollywood. t haven't seen Boyhood yet, but want to.

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Hollywood Reporter missed the point of Jon's bit on Brian Williams. Thier headline says Jon slammed BW for his celebu-whatever that was, instead of focusing on the actual point which was the hypocrisy and media news failure to question the reasons for the war.

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Wasn't really buying the the central premise of that Williams segment: that since the media that completely failed in covering the leadup of the Iraq war, they shouldn't rake over the coals a journalist who's been caught making shit up. The argument employs an evasive logic that can be used to argue against getting upset about almost anything.

Edited by alynch
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Wasn't really buying the the central premise of that Williams segment: that since the media that completely failed in covering the leadup of the Iraq war, they shouldn't rake over the coals a journalist who's been caught making shit up.

        Congratulations! You missed the whole point of the whole segment. At least Jonny-bun's reasonable enough to show how absurd the media goes in using Brian Williams' reports and stories to put him off the air. Besides, it's not like that one flub will cause mass destruction in the Middle East. That event was like, 12 or 13 years, ago, so of course he would make a minor flub in his anecdote after so long. Also, Bri-Wi may look like a douche in certain eyes, but for me, he's the closest I can get to a news reporter. He's like my Peter Jennings successor. I really wish the media would just shut up before their journalists lose credibility, or even worse, their job (not that I care, really).

 

 

But what I really want to say is HOLY FUCK, BASSEM YOUSSEF TOTALLY CRUSHED IT TONIGHT!!! That had to have been the best debut of a correspondent/contributor TDS has ever had. Now that he's in America for a while as a resident fellow at Harvard, I hope we get to see more of him.

        Yes... YES MORE BASSEM YOUSSEF! YES!?!? 

 

2/12: DARK!

       My mind is still pondering about Thursday being dark. It can't be because of the "Night of Too Many Stars" benefit (cuz it'll be taped on the 28th), so I guess it's anybody's guess, but for me I think TDS just wanted to start their vacation early. (sob)

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Wasn't really buying the the central premise of that Williams segment: that since the media that completely failed in covering the leadup of the Iraq war, they shouldn't rake over the coals a journalist who's been caught making shit up. The argument employs an evasive logic that can be used to argue against getting upset about almost anything.

I agree. We could even come up with all the platitudes about lies, good, bad, whatever. 

Yes, the media sucks, journalists suck, there is a lot of unethical things happening in the media but this does not mean that BW deserves a pass. He lied.

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I don't think Jon was giving BriWi a pass. I think he was calling out the hypocrisy of the media dogpile going on. I think the way Williams' tale was embellished over time is troubling, but his tales didn't do the damage the Iraq war did. Williams story changed to feed his ego and buying into the Iraq war hype was similarly driven by ego, with dreams of getting that big scoop, being the administrations' favored reporter and getting to star in some glorious war footage like Wolf Blitzer (whose career seems invulnerable to any stupid move Blitzer might make) from asking if the story was bullshit.

 

I think the point was that BriWi wanted to seem cool to the audience, which is a problem. However, the Iraq War hype was a sign of an institution that's supposed to question and challenge authority desperately kissing up to it. They excused themselves with a shrug and a "There's nothing else we could have done. Oh, well. Hey, did you hear what Donald Trump said about President Obama? Saucy!" Meanwhile, this is a major scandal.

 

I'm not a fan of Williams and but the media scandal is a bit of the pot calling the kettle beige.

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I get the point he's trying to make. It just doesn't strike me as a relevant comparison. It came off more like a rhetorical dodge ("Yes X is a bad thing, but what about Y, which is a worse thing?"). I mean sure, there are more important things out there, but that's always true. It's not like a high-profile journalist with a national platform and daily audience of millions getting caught making shit up is some thoroughly unimportant nonsense.

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It's not like a high-profile journalist with a national platform and daily audience of millions getting caught making shit up is some thoroughly unimportant nonsense.

 

It's not the greatest scandal of the modern news age, either.  The show called Williams to account by laying out what he said, which is appropriate.  What's not appropriate is the rest of the media pretending that they're in a position to moralize about it.

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My take was that Jon was going, "Oh, now you care about the truthfulness of stories repeated by news personalities?" not the old "But children are starving somewhere in the world, why aren't you talking about that!"

 

ETA: After a little bit of thinking, I think it's worth adding a historical context to this. Up until 2005, it was Jon who did most of the heavy lifting of challenging the Iraq bullshit. During the 2004 election, Jon was on Nightline and pleaded with Ted Koppel to explain to the public when politicians lie. Koppel kept dismissing those pleas.

 

It's a matter of "Oh, now you're treating a liar like he deserves to be treated with skepticsm." I mean, Cheney was on Meet the Press recently and not treated like a pariah like he deserves. All of those people are treated like reasonable sources to this day. They keep getting chances to treat Cheney, Bush, Rice, etc the way they're currently treating Williams but they only seem to care.

 

Williams is getting what he deserves and i didn't get the impression that Jon thinks otherwise. But this comes out of a long thread in Jon's history with the media.

Edited by Wax Lion
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The thing about La Scandale BriWi that has burrowed into my brain is the sense that media types view this as a scalp taken. There's never a media-wide groundswell of 'fire him!' when the Foxholes lie left and right, or when the business channels pump crappy investments, and no one really expects there to be. If Williams is seen as a prominent member of the 'liberal media' (and I reckon he is seen that way, however not-liberal his actual newscast may be), getting him humbled is a victory. And establishment types, lefties included, moue and harrumph about standards and such, and 'we expect better' -- which never ever ever happens on the other side.

 

The thing he lied about (if it was an intentional mislead or a trick of memory to which we are all subject) wasn't reportage, after all. It was just an anecdote. But the Dan Rather punishment must be rendered; the scalp must be taken.

 

Disclaimer: I never watch his show: I have nothing particular at stake here.

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I am not condoning Mr. WIlliams' elastic truth if indeed he deliberately lied, but I will say that memory is a tricky thing.  (For instance, I will remember a scene in a movie a certain way and then upon re-viewing the movie, will discover I have misremembered said scene totally incorrectly.  However, that's neither here nor there.)

 

What I find is intolerable is Fox News, of all organizations, getting on their collective high horse and being all "how could he lie!"  Fox News!  When have they ever told the truth?!!!

 

Bill O'Reilly was on Jimmy Kimmel and he said that anyone who rejoiced in Mr. WIlliams' situation should take a good hard long look at themselves because there was something seriously wrong with them.  A surprisingly humane reaction and one that the other media types would do well to emulate.

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Is that really how today's show went down?  The audience reaction for the big announcement seemed off.  I wonder if they scrapped a middle segment, extended the interview, and then taped the "yeah, I'm leaving" closer later.

 

Axelrod could have done the interview naked and it would be a forgotten blurb under the circumstances, but I enjoyed it, and I liked his rejoinder he was going to go study how one could garner 97 percent of the vote.

 

How am I supposed to carry on without things like the opening segment?  "They won't even turn their heads to the left."  Calling out the utter bullshit put forth by Fox News is easy, yes, and, no, TDS doesn't always hit a home run - or even a single - in doing so, but the fact is no one else on basic cable is doing it with anything approaching this consistency.  We NEED that.  I hope someone picks up the torch.

Edited by Bastet
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And I liked Jon's opening segment for once.  I don't understand why these Republicans/conservatives like these silly dictators so much.  Maybe they are fantasizing what they would do if they would have such power(?)

 

I also don't get it that they want Obama to be more like them.  Whenever Obama dares to issue an executive order, they whine that he's now "Emperor Obama". 

 

Wish these guys would make up their minds what they want over there at Fox News.

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The right - ie, Republicans and the right wing media - would like an American president who was a brutal, strong armed dictator in their ideology. Kind of like what Cheney/Bush was or was becoming. They consider Obama an evil, brutal dictator, when in reality he's the polar opposite of their projections of him.

 

This is what Jon showed tonight and why I'll miss him like crazycakes later this year. :(

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What a fucking horrible way to start the day--seeing the news about Jon on a local news crawler and then getting confirmation by watching last night's show. We just lost Stephen. This is so unfair.

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Republicans and the right wing media - would like an American president who was a brutal, strong armed dictator in their ideology. Kind of like what Cheney/Bush was or was becoming.

 

Yeah, the fanboi squee-ing over Abdullah in his flight suit calls to mind the exact same response to W in similar costume at the "mission accomplished" photo op. It's the outfit! They're imagining a movie in their heads! Which is probably of a piece with whenever an actor runs for office, if he's a Republican, he gets elected, if a Dem, he gets scorn. Bah.

 

Fluid and Feelings. That sums me up.

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I am not condoning Mr. WIlliams' elastic truth if indeed he deliberately lied, but I will say that memory is a tricky thing.  (For instance, I will remember a scene in a movie a certain way and then upon re-viewing the movie, will discover I have misremembered said scene totally incorrectly.  However, that's neither here nor there.)

 

Well, I'm not condoning it, but I'm also not particularly het up over it and I find the on-air furor over it at least a little ironic.  Fox News and CNN have misreported many things-- the most recent I recall is the "all Muslim enclaves in Europe!"  crap that they did retract after being internationally slapped around for it -- these are not the bastions of truth they are self-righteously pretending to be in the reaction to what amounts to Brian William's ever-growing-fish story.  Hell, Fox News inserted footage of a crowd from a completely different event to try and make it seem that more people had turned up for a Tea Party rally than had.  It was the Daily Show that caught them fabricating that spin.  

 

There's just a world of difference to me in Brian Williams self-aggrandizing ego-fluffing and deliberately misleading the public about an issue that has an impact on the actual citizens of the country.  Don't mistake me, I think Brian Williams is likely such a grade-A tool he should be shelved at Ace Hardware, but there is a world of difference in distorting an actual event to put himself more at the center of it and altering the actual news to curry the perception that will fit a political narrative.  

 

That was, I believe, Jon's point.   The distortions by those news media were designed to deceive the citizens of this country to achieve what amounts to Propaganda.

 

It didn't stop with the Iraq War either,  remember the Principled Cattle Owner not bowing down to big government and allowing his cattle to graze on Federal land? Sean Hannity proudly proclaiming him a patriot?  Then when it turned out he was an actual lunatic who thought freeing the slaves was a mistake (for freaking real, you'd think I was exaggerating that gem, but I'm actually downplaying it) , they never bothered to retract that, just backpedaled like Lance Armstrong in reverse? 

 

Brian Williams will be fine, but almost everyone I have ever met distorts their past stories of glory.  It's why we all know what the joke "I walked five miles in the snow, uphill (both ways!) and I was grateful!" is about.   Williams told a story about himself that distorted the facts about him.  There were really bodies floating around New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.  I don't know about the puppies thing, but unless federal aid or funds were going to be deployed, I sort of don't care.  

 

Just saying, the media is practicing their own form of convenient amnesia when it comes to Brian Williams crimes against humanity.  

 

I did think that Jon's piece could have been a little clearer on the difference between being egotistical and a Propaganda Machine. 

 

I'm actually too glum to think too much about last night's show right now, but I do think Boyhood looks interesting.  

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The Muslim King piece was well done. I was actually thinking, when Jordan started this huge campaign, "where the hell have you been? Why could you have been doing this since the start?" If anything, I think it makes the king look petty and narrow minded. So, you're not outraged when Brits and Americans get their heads cut off and don't think you really need to help? Now you do? Ok, at least we know where you stand. 

 

Honestly, I don't want people to be killed, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if Obama said, "ok, guys, we're pulling out. You don't like us, I get it. You figure it out then and give me a call when you've cleaned up the place." 

 

Not to mention the fact that it's 2015 and there's a legit "king" is the most ridiculous thing on the planet.

 

I like how Fox news thinks that "diplomacy" is essentially throwing your dick on the table. That's what got us into this mess over the last decade. So, why can't Obama be more of a dictator? Except he is all the time. But he's weak. Except when he's not. Whatever. 

 

I'm not sure Obama is so great on foreign policy, but I think he realizes that just walking around punching people figuratively in the face doesn't work any more. All anyone else is doing is stamping their feet and screaming. There clearly needs to be a new methodology for military engagement and I think he's trying. 

 

I hope someone puts together a gag reel of Fox news over Obama's 8 years.

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I hope someone puts together a gag reel of Fox news over Obama's 8 years.

 

It would indeed be gag-inducing, that's for sure.

 

Somebody tweeted last night that if CC replaced Jon with a test pattern, the result would still be a more reliable source of news than Fox. That sure feels true.

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The funny thing about Jordan is that sure they may be angry, but they also have a shitty air force.  Their participation is, for the most part, symbolic and politically motivated.  US planes and aircrews (under the direction of our utter pansy of a leader) are still running the vast majority of strike missions against Daesh.

 

Also have to love that Fox News is fellating the autocrat who has been disappearing and gunning down critics of his administration, but Obama so much as spits at the Republicans and conservatives will be screaming that he's personally trampling the Constitution into the dirt.

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Yeah, the fanboi squee-ing over Abdullah in his flight suit calls to mind the exact same response to W in similar costume at the "mission accomplished" photo op. It's the outfit! They're imagining a movie in their heads! Which is probably of a piece with whenever an actor runs for office, if he's a Republican, he gets elected, if a Dem, he gets scorn. Bah.

 

What struck me was that a number of Fox outrages came down to being angry that Obama wasn't participating in a meaningless photo-op. The Charlie Hebdo march is the one that comes top of mind but there have been several time where Fox is focused on the meaningless part. I wonder if after years of trying to talk like "Mission Accomplished" made Bush a real fighter pilot who shot down every member of the Republican Guard, they've absorbed that mentality where photo ops are real and invisible policy decisions make no difference in people's lives.

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Right after that one girl during the Sex Ed segment said the Sex Ed in Nevada amounted to "Don't have sex and then watching The Biggest Loser".  To which the interviewer said something to the effect, "Well why do you think people are on that show?  To be screwable."  Fuck you, Daily Show.  This after the show the follows, last week, talked about fat prejudice.  People can be fat and have sex.  You just rub salt the wounds of those who don't have wives or husbands or boyfriends or girlfriends maybe because their fat.  How is that comedy?  What the fuck did we ever do to you!?

 

The lady who was against sex ed got on my nerves, too.  Keeping young people ignorant only makes things worse.  And then she says for the teenagers to go to their "places of worship" and get advice from priest, rabbi, etc.  See what happens when you elect Dominionists, Nevada?  You get shit like this.  People ruining education and children's lives.  So, fuck you too, Nevada.  (I know I'm jumping to the conclusion that the anti-sex ed lady might be a Dominionist and that several might not know what a Dominionist is, but what can I say - I'm paranoid.)

 

In conclusion, Colin Firth is scrummy in a suit.  Don't know if Kingsmen will do well, but it'll make suit fetishists happy.

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You might as well have died Jon. Because we are all in mourning over your announcement last night.

 

Don't give Arby's anymore of that attempted reverse advertising Jon. Othewrwise, I may go to a nearby Arby's for a beef and cheddar.

 

I do hope the campaign to make Brownback's name synonymous with a disgusting act, like with what happened to Rick Santorum, succeeds. He deserves it for being scum. And Alabama deserves to be mocked for passing a law forbidding Sharia Law in their state, while trying to enforce their own brand of religious laws on others.

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