Jon Stewart

One of the inherent difficulties of defining left-wing bias in the press to journalists is that it is something like describing the ocean to fish: It is so pervasive, and such a comfortable, nurturing environment, that it is hardly noticed.

Yesterday's “Restoring Sanity” rally sponsored by Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart of the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report attracted young fans of the shows, self-professed moderates looking for a toned down debate, and great deal of partisan liberal Democrats.

David Zurawik, TV critic for the Baltimore Sun, has a searing critique of President Obama's appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night:

On October 30, 2008 -- just days before the 2008 presidential election -- Bill Kristol restored sanity on Jon Stewart's Daily Show:

Jon Stewart owes Senator Tom Coburn an apology. Josh Rogin reports that Stewart falsely accused Coburn of holding up $1 billion in aid money to Haiti.

It's been remarkable to watch Jon Stewart fall out of love with Barack Obama. Stewart is an intelligent man, a liberal who has reasons for his liberalism, and so he's been unable to sustain the cult worship of the president you find in more reliable Democratic partisans. But Stewart is also a funny man, maybe the funniest politicized liberal around (and a lot funnier than the crass, snarky, and condescending Stephen Colbert), and so Stewart's process of disillusionment has been a pleasure to watch. For example:

The sunlit season of college commencement has been darkened this year with news of plagiarism. The school paper at Connecticut College, the College Voice, reported last month that one of the speakers at last year’s commencement, a graduating senior called Peter St. John, wowed his audience with a speech that had been lifted paragraph by paragraph from another commencement address given at Duke in 2008 by the writer Barbara Kingsolver. 

The CBO released an analysis today that estimates 3.9 million Americans, many of them middle class, will be subject to the penalty payment required of those without government-approved insurance by 2016.

Two forces in TV and politics sit down and have, actually, a pretty nice conversation about Republicans, Fox News, Stewart's editorial sensibilities, health care, and the rest of it.

Enjoy, part one and part two.