If you’re following the U.S. election blogiverse, you probably already know this. For everyone else, here’s the skinny:
The past week’s online buzz has been dominated, not by the latest focus-tested-to-death charges from the Kerry and Bush campaigns, but by Jon Stewart’s appearance on CNN’s Crossfire on October 15. Hugely worth watching.
If you missed it, you can find the clip online (here’s one version in RealPlayer, an AVI in BitTorrent and a third in MPEG 4) or read the CNN transcript.
And if you want to know why it touched a nerve, read Alessandra Stanley’s take in the New York Times: “[N]ews programs, particularly on cable, have become echo chambers for political attacks, amplifying the noise instead of parsing the misinformation. Whether the issue is Swift boat ads or Bill O’Reilly’s sexual harassment suit, shows like ‘Crossfire’ or ‘Hardball’ provide gladiator-style infotainment as journalists clownishly seek to amuse or rile viewers, not inform them.”
