Jon Stewart

I don't know how Jon Stewart can say (and I'm paraphrasing) that he's not as influential as Rachel, or "in the same boat", or "in the field" as those with programs on MSNBC or other cable news shows. I don't how he gets away with saying that he's just a comic satirizing politics and current events, "out of the game" when he has the president and every major political and cultural figure on his show.

How Stewart interviews them, how he showcases them, does indeed influence viewers about these politicians.

I have a brother who reminds me of Jon Stewart. I think both become uncomfortable around conflict and hearing emotionally-charged rhetoric. To feel better themselves, they must change the atmosphere, fix it somehow, so they first try to dispel the tension with humor, becoming clownish. They thinki that if they can cajole people with laughter, whatever the conflict was about will disappear. All it does, however, if it works, is break the tension for the moment. It solves nothing.

WIthout a thorough airing of the hostilities, an acknowledgment of the grievances, there can be no resolution, and the conflict is sure to surface again. And when it inevitably does, people like my brother respond by trying to rise above it, intellectualize it. That way is fraught with judgment, and helps nothing.