CrossFire Blog

As I watched the Crossfire clip a second time, I noticed that as the bow-tie guy and his partner in crime began to lose their "cool," Jon Stewart remained calm. Watching Jon Stewart belittle the two men was very amusing because no matter how many times the two men tried Jon Stewart was able to continue his train of thought about their show. The two men refused to remain silent as Jon Stewart critiqued their show and their direct approach about asking questions. The two men complained that when Jon Stewart had important people on the Daily Show that Jon wouldn't be asking the right questions. The two men said that Jon Stewart was wasting a perfectly good opportunity to attack his guests. This is where Jon Stewart began his speech directed at the two men and their show on why it is a poor show. Jon Stewart was able to step back and look at the current state of the media and government. He repeated on two different occasions that when politicians come on to shows like Crossfire, they use it to promote themselves. These politicians use the shows' hosts like monkeys because all of the hosts ask similar questions and they can prepare for it. Stewart went on to say that the media is hurting America. He says this twice and politely asks the two men to stop twice as well. At the beginning of the clip, the older of the two men (the balding one) gave some binary oppositions; which include black vs. white, left vs. right, paper vs. plastic, and Red Sox vs. Yankees.

The most important part (in my opinion) was when Jon Stewart goes on a strand about how John Kerry won the primary. He says “the best” three times; he also says “process” three times. The two men repeatedly asked Stewart if John Kerry is the best. Stewart says that Kerry is the best according to the process. Stewart analyzed the situation. However he didn’t give his opinion; which agitated the two men to no end. The two men became emotional (read: hostile) when Stewart didn’t give them the answers they were asking for. Jon Stewart remained professional throughout the entire clip. Although as Crossfire was going to take a break, I could sense that Jon Stewart was about to raise his voice a little bit. He was asking the two men to please stop. He says this several times and each successive time it was slightly more emotional and a little louder. Another ten seconds or so and he would have raised his voice. Jon Stewart almost losing his “cool” was an anomaly because it almost never happens.