February 26, 2024
Jon Stewart’s return to The Daily Show leads to partisan shrieking.
Jon Stewart sounds different than all of the mainstream (mostly Democrat-leaning) commentators. They don’t understand how he can criticize Joe Biden, even a tiny bit. Their sense of humor vanishes.
They don’t understand.
I happen to know one of Jon Stewart’s biggest performance secrets.
Stewart understands something important about American politics. And I gave this insight a memorable name and wrote an entire article about it in 2021.
When you discover this insight, it’ll be like putting on new glasses. You’ll see politics not only differently, but also with far greater clarity.
The first step to being so insightful is to listen to this 19-minute episode of Gracearchy with Jim Babka.
OR…
How Jon Stewart Killed Crossfire
Stewart returned to The Daily Show two Mondays ago. Last Monday, he comedically critiqued Tucker Carlson’s Putin production decisions.
But that bit of satire was not their first rodeo.
In this episode of Gracearchy, I re-tell the story of how Jon Stewart pulled back the curtain and exposed the central contrivance of CNN’s Crossfire. Stewart’s guest appearance, in front of co-host Tucker Carlson, was like a time bomb. It blew the longstanding show off the air, not long after.
That appearance is so significant, it has its own Wikipedia page and a YouTube version of it with 17 million views.
Just a couple of years after Stewart’s Crossfire appearance, I became one of five writers on a group blog. Stewart’s Crossfire performance helped inspire a memetic idea that became the conclusion of all my blog posts. And it helped lead me to the secret shared in this episode. So…
You’ll hear the Crossfire story, my story, plus one other Jon Stewart bonus story in this episode. And before we’re through…
I’ll explain where I (and probably you) still differ from Stewart. You’ll hear how to “grace” – that is, we’ll discuss grace as a verb.
You can listen while you work or drive on these podcasting platforms: Pandora * iHeart * Spotify
We’re featuring today’s episode on…
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ZAP The State and have a nice day,
Jim Babka
Host, Gracearchy with Jim Babka
Co-creator, Zero Aggression Project
Gracearchy is hosted by Zero Aggression Project’s co-founder, Jim Babka, but the views expressed in the show are not necessarily those of the board, staff, or supporters of the Zero Aggression Project (Downsize DC Foundation).