Must Watch: Jon Stewart Destroyed the Media over Its Coverage of Trump

(ANTIMEDIA) New York — To the delight of the crowd, former media commentator Jon Stewart dropped in on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show for a visit on Monday. Or, more accurately, he popped up.

Colbert was addressing the camera on the controversial issue of the U.S. president’s banning of certain media outlets from press briefings:

“And the root of all this conflict is that Donald Trump calls any story he doesn’t like ‘fake news.’”

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Upon hearing the term “fake news,” Colbert’s buddy Stewart popped up from under the host’s desk. The crowd cheered in surprise, and once things quieted down, the two men went for a few soft laughs.

“It’s always great to see you but I gotta ask,” Colbert said, “How did you get under my desk?

“I have a tunnel,” the former host of the Daily Show replied.

“A tunnel?”

“A tunnel that I’ve, uh, built, straight from my farm.”

Shortly after that Colbert offered Jon Stewart a chair and the two comedians seated themselves at the desk. The Late Show host’s first question set the tone for the remainder of the nine-minute bit.

“Jon, what do you think about Trump banning mainstream media from that briefing?” Colbert asked.

“I can’t believe the guy’s got the balls,” Stewart replied. “Let me say this, I can’t believe the guy’s got the BALLS to get away with that. Trump lies more in one press conference than CNN does in a year.”

As evidence, Stewart brought up several clips in which he said the president was lying. One such clip was of Trump at a press conference, claiming the U.S. murder rate is the highest it’s been in 47 years. In the clip, Trump noted the media’s surprise at that statistic, something he attributed to reporters not doing their jobs.

Stewart called bunk on that: “No, they were SURPRISED…Because it’s not true. It’s now the lowest it’s been in 45 years.”

As it happens, Trump’s own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, stated at a conference on Tuesday that U.S. crimes rates “remain near historic lows” and pointed out that murder rates are half of what they were in 1980.

Asked by Colbert if he thought the president was lying on purpose, Stewart said yes. Asked by the host for proof of that assertion, Stewart said:

“Because he constantly says the phrase ‘believe me.’”

People telling the truth don’t need to use such assurances, the comedian said. He then rolled an edited clip of the president spitting out the phrase, rapid fire.

But the real message of the bit came next. Colbert asked his friend his true opinion on Trump banning representatives of the media from briefings. To this, Stewart replied: “I say stop your whining, press.”

He then asked Colbert for permission to address the media directly, at which point Stewart turned to the camera and proceeded — as Quartz put it, “like a good friend offering relationship advice” — to compare the spat between the president and the media to a couple breaking up.

“Hey, hey guys. Hey media,” the comedian begins. “So I heard, uh, Donald Trump broke up with you. Stings a little, doesn’t it? Finally thought you’d met your match. A blabbermouth who’s as thin-skinned and narcissistic as you are.”

After stating the media should be happy to be rid of Trump, Jon Stewart continued:

“It is time for you to get your groove back, media. ‘Cause let’s face facts, you’ve kinda let yourself go a little bit for these last few years. Put on a few pundits. Obsessing, 24 hours a day, seven days a week about this ONE guy.”

Pulling no punches, the political commentator put the crowd — and presumably, society at large — in the place of a concerned friend watching another friend make a romantic mistake:

“And the whole time you’re chasin’ after Donnie…The rest of us are thinkin’…‘Can’t you see he’s an asshole?’”

Summing up his case, Stewart suggested the press should stop fixating on the new president and do its supposed job — accurately reporting on the news.

“This breakup with Donald Trump has given you, the media, an amazing opportunity for self-reflection and improvement. Instead of worrying about whether Trump is un-American or if he thinks you’re the enemy, or if he’s being mean to you, or if he’s gonna let you go back into the briefings…Do something for yourself. Self-improvement! Take up a hobby.”

He paused, grinned, and then said: “I recommend journalism.”

But does Jon Stewart actually think the media will shape up? He made his thoughts on that one clear in the bit’s closing.

“So you really think the media is gonna take this opportunity for self-reflection and get better at their jobs?” Colbert asks.

“I really do,” Stewart said with apparent earnestness, then adding: “Believe me.”

Watch the entire clip below:

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The Mainstream Media Has Only Itself To Blame For The "Fake News" Epidemic

Submitted by Stephen Miller via HeatSt.com,

The mainstream media continues to freak out over the spread of “fake news” on Facebook and other social media platforms such as Twitter and reddit. Hillary Clinton’s late campaign thinks this is a problem.

The Democrat party seems to think people with Facebook accounts are to blame for Hillary’s decision to ignore crucial swing states in the final weeks of the campaign, that likely cost her the election.

But the media hasn’t bothered to ask why such sites gained traction. Our media has cultivated false news for years. Understandably, people stopped caring about the “journalistic ethics” the media claim to possess.

The CBS morning show, hosted by Charlie Rose, recently ran a segment on the rise of fake news, based on a story posted on BuzzFeed. The website claimed that Facebook users shared more “fake” news stories than “real” news stories by the end of the election.

Was the story true? Timothy Carney from the Washington Examiner found holes in Buzzfeed’s model which thus complicated the narrative BuzzFeed was trying to present. On examination, Buzzfeed had ignored real statistics to present their own version of a narrative, not the facts.

On the same CBS show, Charlie Rose interviewed former “fake news” pundit and left-wing icon Jon Stewart about the election. During his Daily Show years, Stewart styled himself as both a serious pundit and a comedian, allowing him to walk the line between fake news and satire.

The show’s set, and Stewart’s demeanor, mirrored that of a network news program. His cast did on-location interviews, which were often heavily edited to present their own liberal point of view. But long after Stewart’s show ended, he is still being propped up as an important voice in journalism.

Jon Stewart, "The Most Trusted Name in Fake News," will quit The Daily Show this year: http://t.co/K3FqCFEdwd pic.twitter.com/5HOmV71Yxk

— CNN International (@cnni) February 11, 2015

Jon Stewart topped a 2009 TIME poll asking who was the most trusted newscaster in America http://t.co/6Vcooh7G3X pic.twitter.com/wDBZWuUUCP

— TIME (@TIME) August 7, 2015

Shortly before Stewart filmed his final Daily Show segment in August 2015, the Washington Post published a piece lamenting that “many millennials are about to lose their most-trusted news source.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter has made exposing fake news sites a bit of a pet project. He should start with his own network, along with its mainstream competitors. Stelter himself recently discussed the election with disgraced former CBS New anchor Dan Rather, who was forced to resign after presenting forged documents about George W. Bush’s service in the National Guard as legitimate news.

CNN has run segments suggesting that asteroids cause climate change, and black holes can materialize in Earth’s atmosphere and swallow 747 passenger planes . A CNN panel led by left wing commentator Sally Kohn declared their “hearts are out there marching” with protestors in Ferguson as they all raised their hands to mimic the Black Lives Matter protest mantra — “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” — echoing an alleged gesture during a police shooting that was declared one of the year’s biggest lies (ironically) by the Washington Post.

NBC Nightly News, hosted by Lester Holt, featured a report about “fake news” this past Tuesday, apparently with zero self awareness about how Holt came to host the show. He replaced the disgraced Brian Williams after it was revealed that Williams had fabricated a number of self-aggrandizing anecdotes about his broadcasting career.

How were Williams’ fabrications discovered? Not by NBC’s asleep-at-the-wheel standards executives, and not by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN or even Fox News. They came to light after a soldier on Facebook called Williams out for exaggerating a story about covering the Iraq War. Williams continues to make millions of dollars working for NBC as a late night MSNBC host.

NBC was also caught airing edited audio of a 911 phone call in a way that made Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman come across as a racist, when the full context was far more mundane.

Meanwhile, NBC Universal has invested $2 hundred million in BuzzFeed and Vox. There isn’t enough space to list all of the times Vox failed at delivering “real news.” I will simply let Deadspin explain: “46 Times Vox Totally Fucked Up A Story.”

Rolling Stone continues to put out a magazine despite a verdict of malicious defamation of a UVa administrator related to its publication of, “A Rape on Campus,” a story about a brutal rape that, as it turns out, never happened.

Another such case is Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University rape activist who carried a mattress on her back to protest University administrators for not expelling her alleged rapist. Except the rape never happened. Still, the New York Times ran a piece exulting Sulkowicz titled “The Art of the Political Protest.”

When New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand invited Sulkowicz to be her guest at the State of the Union address, there were no questions about the validity or truth of her claims. The New York Times has repeatedly pushed the fake campus rape statistic that every one in four women are sexually assaulted on campus. This story was repeatedly cited by both Gillibrand and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Beginning to see the problem yet?

When false narratives and comedians are championed, the public at large stops relying on publications and networks who attempt to pass themselves off as “real news” but who in fact either ignore or simply don’t care about information they put out because of an ideological bias.

These Are The Celebrities Who Vowed To Leave America If Trump Wins

Used to dramatic theatrics even if many of them sounded dead serious, dozens of celebs vowed over the last few months to depart the US if Donald Trump won the White House, saying they’d buy a one way ticket to everywhere from Canada to Jupiter. And perhaps some of them planned on carrying through on their threat: overnight Canada’s immigration website crashed from heavy traffic after it became clear that Trump would win.

The question, however, now is how many of these provocateurs will be true to their word, especially in a world in which long-held conventions just got slammed overnight: how many of these so-called starts will make good on their promise?

So, for the sake of convenience, here is a list of celebrities who claimed they would move out of the U.S. under a Trump administration, courtesy of the Hill, should anyone decide to hold them accountable.

Actors

Bryan Cranston said he hopes he doesn’t have to pack his bags, but would “definitely move” if Trump won. “Absolutely, I would definitely move,” the “Breaking Bad” star said on “The Bestseller Experiment” podcast. “It’s not real to me that that would happen. I hope to God it won’t.”

Samuel L. Jackson slammed Trump for running a “hate”-filled campaign and said he would move to South Africa if he wins. “If that motherf---er becomes president, I’m moving my black ass to South Africa,” the movie star quipped to Jimmy Kimmel.

Lena Dunham told Andy Cohen at the Matrix Awards that “I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will. I know a lovely place in Vancouver.” The star and creator of HBO’s “Girls” has been a vocal advocate for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

Neve Campbell, an actress on the political drama “House of Cards,” vowed to move back home to Canada, while “Orange is the New Black” actress Natasha Lyonne said she would hightail it to a mental hospital.

* * *

Singers

Cher tweeted this summer that if Trump gets elected, “I’m moving to Jupiter.” 

Miley Cyrus wrote in an emotional Instagram post in March that tears were running down her cheek and she was unbelievably scared and sad. “I am moving if he is president,” the young pop star said. “I don’t say things I don’t mean!”

Barbara Streisand, a vocal Clinton supporter, told “60 Minutes” that “I’m either coming to your country if you’ll let me in, or Canada.”

Ne-Yo told TMZ last month that he’d move to Canada and be neighbors with fellow R&B singer Drake if the country elected Trump.

* * *

Comedians

Comedian Amy Schumer said in September that Spain would be her destination of choice.

“My act will change because I will need to learn to speak Spanish,” Schumer said in an appearance on the BBC’s “Newsnight.” “Because I will move to Spain or somewhere. It’s beyond my comprehension if Trump won. It’s just too crazy.”

Chelsea Handler said she already made contingency plans months ago.

“I did buy a house in another country just in case,” the comedian and talk show host said during an appearance on “Live with Kelly and Michael” in May. “So all these people that threaten to leave the country and then don’t — I actually will leave that country.”

Former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart said he would consider “getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planet’s gone bonkers” if the real estate mogul wins.

Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of the “The View”, said on an episode of the talk show earlier this year that if the country elects Trump, “maybe it’s time for me to move, you know. I can afford to go.”

Keegan-Michael Key said he would flee north to Canada. “It’s like, 10 minutes from Detroit,” the comedian told TMZ in January. “That’s where I’m from; my mom lives there. It’d make her happy too.”

Hispanic comedian George Lopez said Trump “won’t have to worry about immigration” if he takes the White House because “we’ll all go back.”

* * *

Political Figures

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joked in an interview with The New York Times in July that it’d be time to move to New Zealand if Trump were to win.

“Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,” she said quoting her husband who died in 2010. “I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president. For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”

Ginsburg later apologized for her comments, calling them “ill-advised.”

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton told a reporter earlier this year that he’s “reserving my ticket out of here if [Trump] wins.”