Mehdi Hasan Calls Out Jon Stewart’s Criticism of Media: ‘Doesn’t He Really Mean Right Wing Media?’
If there were such a thing as onomatopoeia of cable news punditry, this might be a good example.
At issue? Jon Stewart’s appearance on CNN Sunday morning in which he called out the media’s bias towards conflict to Jake Tapper. “The media does a terrible job at de-escalation,” the late-night comedian offered. “And de-escalation is the anecdote to all this nonsense. And I don’t mean civility, and I don’t mean non-partisanship. I mean focusing on things that are more urgent and elemental in people’s lives and really hammering away at those things.”
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan aired that clip and then proceeded to take issue with how, in his esteem, Stewart got this wrong. And Hassan did so in such a way that not only escalated political conflict but really kind of proved Stewart’s point.
After airing the clip, Hasan started his toss to Ayman Mohyeldin by saying, “I adore Jon Stewart. I used to worship The Daily Show when he hosted it, but isn’t he falling into the trap of referring to the media as if it’s a monolith, the media when he really means right-wing media?”
I think most reasonable people would watch the entire interview on CNN’s State of the Union and come away from that he was, in fact, including CNN, in particular, in his entirely reasonable and measured criticism. The “media” very definitely has a bias towards conflict, which Stewart reasonably pointed out in the same manner as reporting on gravity or the need to breathe.
But Hasan had a different take. “I’ve spent this year focusing this show on elemental issues, democracy, climate, economy, covid. Fox has spent it on critical race theory and Dr. Seuss,” he noted before asking, “Why should I be lumped in with them?”
He’s right that Fox News earns millions and millions of ad revenue dollars based on outrage, and there is reason to criticize them for it. But that wasn’t the point Jon Stewart was making. He identified what he sees as the pernicious trend of all in media to focus on the conflict, or political differences, instead of a more nuanced and subtle approach of de-escalation or presenting a broader context.
And yes, Mediaite itself plays its part in this ecosystem that rewards and breathes life into on-air “eviscerated” headlines that get clicks at the cost of more nuanced headlines.
We’ve seen the enemy, and the enemy is us?
Watch above via MSNBC.
