Monday, October 18, 2004

John Stewart's Castle Wall

Awhile back I wrote about John Stewart's growing credibility as host of The Daily Show and his curious new designation as an actual political pundit. Given the fact that his show is, in his words, "fake news", I continue to be surprised as he now has a book and is appearing on non-fake political shows such as Crossfire. I finally got a chance to see the clip of his segment on Crossfire where he takes the two hosts to task for not doing their jobs and "hurting America". Now, I never watch Crossfire and have stopped regularly watching Stewart's show due to it's total slide into non-objectivity (that plus it's not that funny lately), but am I the only one wondering where Stewart gets off? I mean, he never stops talking about how his show is a big joke; always hiding behind the "fake show" argument to avoid criticism and pronouncing those who take shots at him as absurd for trying to hold a fake show and host accountable for anything. My question is, why didn't the Crossfire hosts just say "listen John, if your whole show is a joke and it's absurdist to question your journalistic integrity; if you're nothing but a comedian who shouldn't be taken seriously, then why should anyone watching care about your thoughts on, or for that matter on anything at all?" I'm telling you, it's only a matter of time before Stewart makes the mistake of going on a show with a skilled interviewer and gets creamed. Now that would be funny.

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Giants Lose. Season Over.

Yesterday my old man and I attended the Giants/Dodgers game at Dodger stadium. This isn't a recap; you know what happened. My question is this: where does this game fall on Bill Simmons' Levels of Losing scale? A Broken Axel? Stomach Punch? This Can't Be Happening? Guillotine? Maybe a little of all of them. There's no worse feeling than being in a stadium full of people you hate and then end up walking out of the place as they laugh at you. It reminds me of the time in 2nd grade when I was called up to the front of my class to testify as to whether or not Santa Claus was real, then having my teacher correct me in front of everyone when I informed them that he was most certainly responsible for my gifts every Christmas. I wanted to pull a Pearl Jam "Jeremy" that day, and felt much the same last night as we walked out of there - looking at celebrating Dodger fans and wondering to myself things like "if I hit that guy as hard as I could right under his nose, would I kill him instantly like Bruce Willis did in "The Last Boyscout?" And my poor father, shaking his head and saying things I've heard too many times before, like "they needed pitching today. They've needed pitching ever since I moved to The City in 1968."

What a bad day. But, you live to fight again. The life of a Giants fan.