Culture & Society

Jon Stewart explains why media is making ‘a mistake’ casting Trump as ‘incredible supervillain’

October 18, 2021 | | Print Article

Jon Stewart seems to be admonishing the conflict-focused corporate media over its inability to recuperate from Trump derangement syndrome.

The media is making a mistake by treating former President Trump as a “supervillain” like Magneto from the Marvel Comics Universe, the former Comedy Central host told CNN’s Jake Tapper as part of a longer interview.

Tapper, whose Trump obsession seems to emerge, among other instances, when the ex-POTUS raises doubts about the results of Election 2020, which the anchor describes as the “big lie,” admitted that Trump had identified some weak points in democracy.

“He is now endorsing candidates for secretary of state in battleground states, candidates who are all in on the big lie,” Tapper lamented.

The mainstream corporate media has consistently maintained that there was no “widespread” fraud in the presidential contest and frowns on any alternative narratives.

“I think we make a mistake focusing this all on Donald Trump, as though he’s…Magneto and some incredible supervillain that has changed the very nature and temperature of the U.S.,” said Stewart, who hosted the satirical news program “The Daily Show” from 1999 to 2015.

Ratings for that program have trended significantly downward since Stewart exited.

“[Trump has] just been an effective vessel, but again, like, he’s not singing new songs…He’s maybe signing them a little better than, you know, Goldwater, but I think it is a mistake to focus it all on this one individual and not to focus it more on the idea that power is its own reward, whether it be in the financial industry or in government,” Stewart said.

Watch:

(Video: CNN)

“Power doesn’t cede itself, and unless we can figure out a better way to balance out that power for workers and boaters and different groups, we’ll be vulnerable,” Stewart, a liberal who is obviously no particular fan of Trump, continued.

“I don’t know that autocracy is purely the domain of Donald Trump. I think that we all have a bit of a tendency…to grant ‘amnesty’ to people who are doing things that we would prefer, even if that means they are ‘slightly’ undemocratic…So I think our focus unhealthily on this one individual comes at the price of systems and dynamics that have been in place long before this cat ever learned how to surf those waves.”

In referring to undemocratic positions, some might infer that Stewart is perhaps alluding to such initiatives as vaccine mandates.

Over the years, the deferential media has often given the comedian a platform as a purported conscience of the journalism sector. Stewart has just launched a show about current political and social issues on Apple TV called “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” publicity for which may explain his recent re-emergence on the media circuit.

Over the summer, Stewart raised eyebrows when he humorously promoted the theory that the coronavirus emerged from the Wuhan lab in China.

While talking with Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Stewart also chided the media for its inability to de-escalate controversies when it should be covering “things that are more urgent and elemental in people’s lives.”

“How many times have you seen stories about the battle over masks, that’s the Karen yelling in the store, and the people throwing them out and all that? And how many stories have we seen about the efficacy of masks, or the why?…There are some. But the overwhelming majority of stories seek to expose the conflict lines,” Stewart recalled.

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Robert Jonathan
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