A little more than three weeks ago, Andrew Breitbart promised Red Eye's Greg Gutfeld that he would " down the institutional left" in "the next three weeks." While Breitbart later admitted he was joking, the deadline has arrived, and it's brought with it a media blitz worthy of his spectacular series of hotel-lobby Flip Cam interview at this year's CPAC. Yesterday, Slate released the second in what appears to be a series of profiles in various publications on the internet mogul, and for a figure as polarizing as Breitbart, writer Chris Beam paints a remarkably favorable picture. It's not a glowing biographical sketch-- there is no attempt to hide anything Beam finds noteworthy about Breitbart, whether that means his refreshingly comfortable relationship with four-letter words or his fear of expressing emotions other than outrage and amusement--but it's the most candid, three-dimensional look the public has ever gotten of him. (more...)

video This is the reason why Jon Stewart and The Daily Show deserve all the accolades they receive: they take a topic that would be so very banal in the hands of any one else, and make it far more entertaining and informative with their own treatment. In this instance the topic is political sex scandals and the associative and hypocritical rhetoric that follows. (more...)

video Can anyone blame Jon Stewart for not being able to resist Tuesday's epic Eric Massa, Glenn Beck interview? No. And Stewart is in top form here, especially for those who missed either the interview or the lead up to it (as per usual, even Stewart can't quite match the phenomenon of the real thing). Stewart's take in a nutshell: (more...)

Probably Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels did not expect so much attention when he sent out a memo banning the employees of his flagship radio station from using 119 words on air, or for asking them to spy on eachother. But he did. And now NPR has jumped into the fray and done what I imagine every single employee who received that memo desperately wanted to do after reading it. They have put all the words in one sentence. Behold this 'perfect storm' of newspeak: (more...)

Despite the absurdity of the Liz Cheney/Keep America Safe "Al Qaeda 7" ad, and the fact that Cheney's group sounds like its mascot ought to be a pee-pants version of Woodsy Owl, the spot has been generating a lot of heat. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and frequent Countdown contributor Eugene Robinson wrote a scathing op-ed yesterday attacking the fallacy behind the ad, but it could have easily been directed at his friend and colleague, Keith Olbermann. (more...)

This is sort of like a combination of Sarah Palin meets George Carlin meets Jon Stewart, except not funny. Except maybe in the truly absurd sense. Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels has reportedly issued a memo to the staff of the company's flagship station WGN-AM (720) in Chicago banning 119 words from being used on air. 119. And not one of them is excoriate! Some examples (a couple of which appear to be inspired by a former president) : (more...)

What do Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Keith Olbermann have in common with a masturbating Jason Jones? They all appeared on tonight's hilarious Chatroulette segment on the Daily Show. Scoring an impressive Big Three hat trick, Jon Stewart took his viewers through a Chatroulette sessio — plus Olbermann, Liz Claman, some incognito Daily Show staffers and plenty of pixellated male nudity. Major props to the anchors, who all turned in hilarious moments (and biggest props to Sawyer, who was the least hammy and the most out of her element, but still gamely participated) — but the best and funniest moment belonged to Olbermann, whose pseudo-Special Comment was perfectly timed, right up to "I think one of us is supposed to take our pants off now." Well done, sir. (more...)

video The Daily Show's Jon Stewart set out last night to prove FNC anchor Megyn Kelly was not as "fair and balanced" as she is purported to be, and in fairly convincing 10-minute segment they made the point loud and clear. But the Daily Show was edited to prove that point - so we watched the full two-hour America Live today, and frankly, Stewart has a point. (more...)

video Rick Sanchez wasn't the only sort-of-anchor who had a take on his strange sort-of-anchoring during CNN's tsunami coverage Saturday. Jon Stewart weighed in on The Daily Show tonight as well. (more...)

“So I can’t say Olympics, or Vancouver, or winter or show geometric shapes of any size or color?”

(Stephen Colbert 2/22/10)

“These are not sports, these are drunken dares. Hey go down that hill on a sled. Oh, now try it on two sticks. Now do it with a rifle. I mean, you’re over thinking it.”

(John Hodgman, 2/24/10) (more...)

Rush Limbaugh, bastion of compassion, weighed in yesterday with his views on the health care reform summit and the woes of people who are not covered. In particular, Rep. Louise Slaughter, who during yesterday's Summit hightlighted the plight of one of her constituents who was forced to use her dead sister's dentures. Rush, suffice to say, was not moved. (more...)

video Probably you caught at least some of yesterday's health care reform summit as all the cablers ran with it for most of the day -- even Fox which preempted ratings powerhouse Glenn Beck. After day long complaints, highlighted by Jon Stewart (below) of the summit merely being a piece of political theater (Shakespeare, Kabuki, or otherwise!) the proceeding were actually mostly tame. Mostly. Also it's questionable whether anything was accomplished. Says Stewart:

So there we have our opening bids: One side wants to find common ground, the other side wants to start over. Let's start negotiating!

Actually, in the end, Stewart appeared more encouraged than not about yesterday's summit. He even threw around the word "substantive." Now if only he could have moderated the day-long proceedings and provided even more little descriptive nuggets like this: "That is Senator Tom 'killing abortion doctors might not be such a bad idea' Coburn'" and "That's Senator Chuck 'if I was any more Liberal and Jewish I would be Barbara Streisand-Shumer." Who Stewart points out, were actually having a conversation about health care! Video below.

video Wow. So, Glenn Beck's CPAC keynote speech on Friday was apparently so powerful it united Jon Stewart, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin...against him. I'm not sure what that says about Beck except that he really has managed to carve out a place all his own in the media landscape these last few months and he maybe is making some people nervous. Well not Jon Stewart per se ('gold mine' might be a better description), but it's certainly interesting to hear Rush Limbaugh (ever so gently) push back at Beck. Sign of things to come? Is Beck on his way to becoming the Frankenstein of the right? The tone of both Levin and Limbaugh suggest they were less than thrilled at Beck's conservative bashing/reality check (videos of all three below). (more...)

After releasing a pretty inclusive list of the Top 25 Right-Wing Journalists in America, Daily Beast columnist Tunku Varadarajan took on the other half of the aisle, putting together a list of the most powerful and influential American liberals. In many ways, The Top 25 Left-Wing Journalists list is much more eclectic than it's conservative counterpart, and includes a much larger number of personalities that toe the line between entertainers/commentators and journalists-- many, in fact, that are solidly in the entertainment or commentary camp. (more...)

Can it be that the leader of the free world, who recently made a quick lunch out of a roomful of House Republicans, is afraid of getting nailed by Stephen Colbert? In an interview with Michael Scherer, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama would love to appear on Jon Stewart's Daily Show, but gave Colbert the bump. (more...)

I know I used that joke yesterday, but Jon Stewart's observation about the marketing of outrage has a direct bearing here. His guest on last night's Daily Show was baseball legend Willie Mays, and the interview was very illuminating. So much of what we cover here centers around whatever "outrageous" thing is being said by people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Keith Olbermann, and while sometimes it truly is an outrage, hearing Mays talk about his experience in the segregated baseball world put that all in perspective. (more...)

OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on Jon Stewart's Daily Show last night, and did little to advance his party's attempts to politicize terrorism trials. While most are focusing on his self-inflicted "Richard Reid was a US citizen" wound, as well as Stewart's "don't let reality get in the way" zing, I found myself audibly cheering for Stewart as he described his attitude toward terrorism trials in New York. (more...)

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At today's briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joined the ranks of comedy legends like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, and Andrea Mitchell when he did his own version of Sarah Palin's "helping hand." Is the Palin Hand Jive the new "I'ma let you finish?" (more...)

video The story of embattled political soon-to-be ex-wife Jenny Sanford is one of the rarest incidents in American politics: a story that both sides can spin to fit their narrative. Sanford went on a media tour to promote her new book, Staying True, that hit all three major cable news channels and the unofficial fourth power in journalism, The Daily Show. And despite the vast ideological gaps among the mediums, every interviewer wanted her on their team. (more...)

I've been getting pretty frustrated with the usually reliable Keith Olbermann's inability to nail Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin on Limbaugh's use of the term "retard." Sure, he has posited Palin as a hypocrite, but several times he has repeated Rush's and Palin's dueling assertions that he was "quoting" Rahm Emanuel, or that he was being "satirical," without really challenging it. Luckily, Stephen Colbert actually knows what the word "satire" means, and deployed a pile of it on Palin and Rush last night. (more...)

Hyperbole must be over. How else does one explain the extremely disappointing bits that Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann did on Sarah Palin last night? Handed (thank you, I'm here all week) 3 days of Palin material that rivaled anything George W. Bush ever gave them, Olbermann could barely manage a molecule of spittle, let alone a lather, and Stewart deployed his seldom-used Nerf™ jokes.

Have these Sovereigns of Smackdown gone soft? Are these Sultans of Snark running scared? How is any of this supposed to result in an outraged rebuttal on Palin's Facebook page? (more...)

video Is Arianna Huffington vs. Glenn Beck the new Keith Olbermann vs. Bill O'Reilly, or perhaps even the new Andrew Breitbart vs. Media Matters (and a whole bunch of other people depending on the day and the Twitter)? Huffington is certainly taking advantage of every available opportunity to direct attention to what she describes as Beck's "dangerous" language. This Sunday on Reliable Sources Huffington described Beck to host Howie Kurtz and fellow panelist Hugh Hewitt thusly: (more...)

video Bill O'Reilly used his interview with Jon Stewart and the Comedy Central host's criticism of Fox News to defend his network against the general blanket criticisms of the network. It's a familiar defense - an unsurprising look around the opinion vs. news spectrum on the channel. And it mostly makes sense. (more...)

As I reported yesterday, the media sharks are circling Countdown, hoping for a quick meal. Since then, Newsbusters and the NY Post joined the dogpile, prompting another rebuttal from host Keith Olbermann. The message? Countdown is doing just fine, thank you, and these critics are just part of the right-wing noise machine. He's mostly right, but that doesn't mean he should ignore them. (more...)

video Tonight The O'Reilly Factor aired the third of three segments of host Bill O'Reilly interviewing Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show. A hackneyed bit on O'Reilly's plans to run president with Stewart as his VP served as entree into a variety of political issues of the day, including global warming, the threat of nuclear weapons, terrorism and military tribunals. All in all an interesting, yet unsatisfying experience. Let's see a three-hour unedited debate on Pay-per-view, with proceeds going to some charity. Go! (more...)

video Bill O'Reilly hosts the top rated cable news program right now The O'Reilly Factor. Jon Stewart, who happens to host the critically acclaimed and influential Daily Show, makes a healthy living criticizing O'Reilly, and more to the point, Fox News. So its rather remarkable that Fox News invited one of their biggest critics to come on their channel in hopes of providing entertaining television. Thank you Fox News. (more...)

video Last night The Daily Show's Jon Stewart brought Brian Williams from NBC's Nightly news onto his program for the third time in the last 12 months. It's not surprising that Williams is on so much - he and Stewart have a relaxed rapport, and he's displayed almost savant-like comedic chops in other arenas. What was surprising was something Stewart appeared to say a couple minutes into the interview - something that, if he meant it as it sounded, goes against everything he's ever said about his Daily Show work. (more...)

video It looks like Glenn Beck isn't the only one responding to the media's personal critiques of his on air behavior. I missed this Monday, but turns out Jon Stewart (very briefly) responded to (called bulls**t on) Howie Kurtz's column that quoted Bill Kristol speculating that Stewart was a secret neocon. Said Stewart: (more...)

video You may recall that one of the biggest concerns in the comedy world was that the election of Barack Obama would be the end of political humor, particularly where Jon Stewart was concerned. After years of being the unrelenting, sorely needed, voice of what many considered to be their only 'true' news source (that's a whole other conversation) during the Bush years, a whole lot of people wondered how Stewart would find a way to bring his biting humor to Obama who seemed -- a year ago anyway! -- to be untouchable. Regular viewers of the show will know it hasn't been all that much of a problem, particularly these last nine months (the 'Beer Summit' was pretty much tailor made for late night). (more...)

After Keith Olbermann's post-SOTU j'accuse of a bevy of conservative talking heads, in which he equated their cries of "arrogance" with the racially inflammatory "uppity," many thought Keith was overreaching at best.

Be that as it may, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report covered a case of the pot calling the kettle "arrogant," as they reported on the unprecedented bit of reverse-place-putting that was the Republicans' Mini-me SOTU. It's not that Obama is "uppity," it's that the Republicans have been too "downity." (more...)

I spent some time tonight getting caught up on Howard Zinn, historian, author and activist who died yesterday, and whose death triggered a similar, if quieter, sort of outpouring as did the death of another American icon, J.D. Salinger. Zinn's popularity came from his taking of an unpopular and rather uncompromising line of reasoning that ran counter to the rah-rah themes of 'accepted' American history, aka that which had been written by the victors: (more...)

For many TV viewers, the most eagerly anticipated post-State of the Union remarks were neither the GOP response from newly-elected Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, nor reactions from any of the various TV reporters and pundits covering the proceedings - they were jokes from the fake reporter/pundit team of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The two tape their shows in advance, so they couldn't offer their full remarks until last night - and they said largely the same thing (at least about McDonnell's rebuttal), though Colbert had a more inventive way of doing it. (more...)

Who: Jeffrey Toobin, Calvin Trillin, Janeane Garofalo and Jonathan Alter, moderated by Andy Borowitz What: The Andy Borowitz Report: Obama’s First Year Where: 92nd St. Y When: January 27, 2010 Thumbs: Up Host/moderator Andy Borowitz set the tone for the evening with ten minutes of stand-up comedy at the top of the event. It sent the message that this wasn’t going to be the same old discussion evaluating the president’s first year in office. It was a night with more laughs than sharp critique. And that’s just what the crowd was looking for on the night of the president’s State of the Union address. (more...)

For the past few days, Countdown's Keith Olbermann has been gleefully tying conservative politicians and media figures to alleged federal criminal James O'Keefe by dint of their praise for the costumed filmmaker's "journalism." But Fox News, Andrew Breitbart, and company weren't O'Keefe's only boosters. On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart cast the net wide enough to include himself, but missed a few others. (more...)

video Throughout the Bush administration, Jon Stewart made a lot of hay from the steady flow of foibles, flaws and foul-ups of the former president. When Barack Obama took office, many television critics breathlessly asked "where would Jon Stewart get his material now?" Well, it turns out that A) nobody is beyond reproach; and B) a good comedy bit is more important to Stewart than any perceived political bias, as evidenced by his take down of the President's use of a teleprompter in a sixth grade classroom. (more...)

poll Hang on to your chalkboards folks. According to the latest Harris poll, Glenn Beck is the second most popular television personality in America....second only to Oprah Winfrey. This marks Beck's debut on the list, a list on which Bill O'Reilly has never reached higher than third spot. This year Beck beat out Jay Leno (the poll was conducted pre the Team Coco wars), Ellen DeGeneres, Hugh Laurie, Jon Stewart, Charlie Sheen, Mark Harmon, David Letterman, and Bill O'Reilly. In that order. (more...)

Give credit where credit is due: Keith Olbermann's Friday apology, however slight, was a rare thing, indeed, in the world of political punditry. Responding to a scorching Jon Stewart parody of Countdown's Special Comment segment, Keith gently needled the Daily Show host's early work, offered to come on his show, and mildly conceded Stewart's point. While I don't doubt that Keith had a true moment of self-recognition here, I'm also fairly certain that this apology was equal parts reflection and self-preservation. Will it be  enough to stave off the Jon Stewart Wrath-O-Matic? (more...)

video Keith Olbermann's recent transformation from a harsh but reasoned critic of the right, to a hyperbolic caricature of bluster was best exemplified by his recent run-down of Senator-elect Scott Brown. Many media critics noticed it, but most notable was Jon Stewart, who eviscerated his shtick Thursday night. Even Mediaite's Tommy Christopher asked yesterday "Is Olbermann losing it?" So many of us were shocked by his response last night when he agreed with the critique, and even said "sorry." Kudos! (more...)

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Just hours after Jon Stewart's sharply observant takedown of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment segments, the Countdown host launched into a diatribe that made Stewart's segment look like a love letter. In railing against yesterday's hotly debated Supreme Court decision, he effectively said it was worse than slavery, and compared Floyd Abrams, who is Jewish, to a Nazi.

Is Keith losing it? (more...)

This is what happens when your late-night show tapes at 5 in the afternoon.

On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart took on Keith Olbermann's 3-day Scott-war against the newly-elected Republican Senator from Massachusetts, incinerating the Countdown host's Special Comment segment along the way. In a case of life imitating art, Olbermann parodied the Special Comment hours after Stewart taped his takedown, saying that yesterday's Supreme Court decision legalizing corporate campaign contributions was worse than the Dred Scott decision. (more...)