Ed here: I'm a big fan of Seth McFarlane's work but when I see on TV he's a little smirky for my taste. Too hip for the room. However I agree with him about Jon Stewart here. I never could figure out the point of that big event Stewart had in Washington a few years ago. I pretty much felt he was celebrating himself and his status as a pundit. At least Colbert had the horse sense to mock it all with that ridiculous costume. Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann dared to say the same thing--what was the point? Stewart claimed that both sides were holding up progress in congress and they needed to get together. My ass. The GOP was holding it up per MItch McConnell's statement that his most important goal was to make sure that Obama was a one term president. So when Maher and Olbermann spoke up Stewart took shots at them. I dont know if they got phone calls from him but McFarlane sure did.
From Pop Eater/Huffington Post
Seth MacFarlane has a feud with Jon Stewart?
by Lanford Beard
Categories: Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane, The Daily Show
During the taping for tonight’s Piers Morgan, the muckraking Brit sprang questions about a never-revealed war of war of words between guest Seth MacFarlane and The Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart. According to Morgan’s crack investigators, Stewart called the Family Guy creator up in 2008 after MacFarlane lampooned Stewart for continuing to air The Daily Show during the 2007 Writers Guild strike. MacFarlane described Stewart as “angry” and himself both “shocked” and “frustrated” during the hour-long the telephonic ambush. He explained, “I think [Jon’s] response was ‘Who the hell made you the moral arbiter of Hollywood?’”
When Morgan noted, “There’s a certain irony in Jon Stewart ringing up and haranguing you for mocking him, isn’t there?” MacFarlane responded, “If I say yes, he’ll crucify me on his show for a year.” MacFarlane, who admitted he was outmatched by Stewart’s phenomenal debate skills, was surprised Morgan even knew about the altercation, saying, “My publicist has forbidden me to talk about this ever since it happened.”
I watched Stewart for years and enjoyed him but eventually his main debate tactic was to interrupt conservatives. If he had more guts he'd let them speak and then dive into their inconsistencies and failings. It's frustrating when someone I agree with so much pisses me off.
ReplyDeleteSame as O'Reilly across the aisle. Too much ego, too little respect for thinking audiences. Anyway, I'd rather hear my talking heads than watch them, and the only show I listen to is Left, Right & Center on NPR.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's a reason (or lack of point) that's certainly kept me from giving money to Stephen Colbert's "Heroes" PAC...Stewart should also, in the future, try not to bring on the likes of Pervez Musharraf so that he might hawk his book...bad enough that so many bloviators of a less immediately deadly sort get innings on THE DAILY SHOW, which I usually enjoy when I see it or hear it...but not unalloyedly, any more than I do REAL TIME or THE COLBERT REPORT...
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I don't consider Stewart a saint by any means, but I give him a pass just because he's one of the few in popular media talking any sense. I wish there was a way to get The Daily Show in front of a higher amount average Americans, because the 'serious' media sure isn't pointing out the hypocrisy of the radical right.
ReplyDeleteI miss Margaret Chase Smith. She was a Republican I understood and respected. Today, she'd be considered a Socialist by her own party.
I miss the the GOP of the the Ike era. There were Birchers in it to be sure but generally they were sensible people with good of the nation in mind.
ReplyDeleteThese people are barbarians at the gate as far as I'm concerned. And yes Smith as a fine woman and Senator.