Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, 2015

I recently went back and and watched some old clips of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. I saw a clip of him covering Occupy Wall Street ripping apart corporate media and yes actually using the term ‘corporate media’. He highlighted how not just FOX, but also MSNBC and CNN were both hypocritical and myopic in their coverage of the protests. I then watched one of the first clips of Stewart covering Bernie Sanders and again he called out CNN and MSNBC for all calling Sanders insane, his ideas bananas, and how the news picked on his appearance rather than the substance of Bernie’s campaign. Jon Stewart went after pundits unapologetically and called out media bias for what is: utter and complete bullshit.

When Jon Stewart hosted the Daily Show, he often went on rants about how ridiculous CNN is and the audience applauded, we at home applauded because it was obvious and still is for anyone paying attention. He never held back and that’s imperative for any great political comedian.

Most importantly, he often called out Obama and expressed his dissatisfaction in Obama’s milquetoast centrism. He said of the Obama Presidency to British GQ in 2015:

“If you are going to have the audacity of rhetoric you have to have audacity of effort. If there is disappointment in Obama it is that he didn’t go down swinging.”

This is a deeply fair criticism. Like many, I volunteered countless hours for Obama and was truly disappointed by his years in the White House. In my opinion, Stewart is being too kind and often didn’t go far enough.

Case in point, I recently saw the Micheal Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 and truthfully, I didn’t expect to like it. I thought it would be another ‘Trump Bad, Hillary Good’ fiasco but it wasn’t that at all. It was thoughtful, in depth coverage of 40 years of terrible policy since the Democratic Leadership Council and what real progressives have said for years: Trump isn’t the real problem, he’s a symptom of the problem. The section in the film on Flint was chilling. Watching Obama drink the water, saying he played with lead painted toys as a kid, and seeing the audience’s horrified faces when they knew he wasn’t there to help saw truly sickening. One African American Flint activist said, ‘He came here as my President, but when he left he was not my President.’

Like any political satirist worth their salt, Jon Stewart often called out Obama for his shortcomings. It’s horrifying to see now because Trump put such an ugly yet accurate face on GOP political ideology that anyone who offers even the mildest criticism of Obama or centrist democrats is met with suspicion of being an asset of Russia. We’re facing a moment in history where if we don’t address this situation, collectively call it out, and be unafraid to face the backlash we’ll continue on the road to authoritarianism and mob rule. Absolutely no good will come of living in fear of speaking truth to power. It never has, and never will.

Let’s not mince words, most of what we’re seeing now on network TV and cable isn’t political satire, it’s as bad as reading a Mike Huckabee tweet.

Yep, it’s that bad.

In the age of Trump mainstream political comedy has taken a very unfortunate turn. There are noted exceptions, The President’s Show, Seth Meyers has occasionally been on point, but it’s rare(and I’m sure I’m missing someone or some show that’s done good work, so please let me know). But The Daily Show is dead, bury that shit because it stinks. Rather than doing the hard work of poking holes in the lunacy that got us here, the corruption of both parties, and why corporate news needs to challenged, they hold water for the establishment. That’s not satire. Sorry folks, that’s propaganda.

Now we have the added bonus of social media where we can see what the writers, producers, and hosts of these shows really think. From Samantha Bee to Jena Friedman, and the list goes on and on, it’s non-stop Bernie bashing and jokes about how bad Trump is ad nauseam.

Trump is bad? Oh my god, no way. I had no way of telling, thank you SO MUCH! Your an absolute genius in political comedy and you’ve opened all our eyes, thank you for your service. You are brave and a hero.

Christ.

And let’s be clear, Trump played us all. Yes, that barely sentient jizz rag played us all. Goddammit, and political comedy got put in a jail along with millions of others in America. Jon Stewart often called out CNN and MSNBC’s bullshit, yet no one called Jon Stewart a ‘Putin Puppet’ or accused him of working for Russia. And for years we all called Fox fake news, because for fucks sake, that’s what it is. But the tables have turned, the game was switched, and very few seem to be aware they got put on a different ride at the carnival of shit.

Trump, the very-stupid-but-smartly-manipulative-fake-populist-Arby’s-dumpster somehow fucked us all. He took the words fake news and turned political comedy into a wasteland of cheerleaders for the establishment. Isn’t that great? Yes, obviously a large amount of what MSNBC and CNN reports is real and respectable. But when corporations own the networks it’s only a fool who thinks all their reporting is fair and unbiased.

Best part? We now we have dolts on social media threatening anyone who has criticisms of their favorite candidates. We saw David Sirota torn to shreds by ‘Resistance Twitter’ for daring to report on Beto O’Rourke’s voting record and who he received donations from, and now there are verified accounts saying things like, ‘Dear Bernie Bros, Disrespect Kamala at your own peril’.

It seems in the age of Trump, liberals have embraced fascism with lightning speed. Sadly, this isn’t entirely surprising if you’ve read, Centrists Are the Most Hostile to Democracy, Not Extremists by David Adler.

Consider the following:

Don’t like the candidate that MSNBC, CNN, The Hill, and Politico said you must embrace even before we’ve had a primary in 2020?

The Resistance: We will come after you and make you suffer.

Dare to report on a candidate’s voting record?

The Resistance: How dare you? You’re clearly a Russian stooge, a Putin puppet.

Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, Bill Maher, and the bulk of ‘political comedians’ make nothing but Trump jokes and hail Joy Reid and Jake Tapper as fearless truth tellers?

The Resistance: Hands off our corporate media heroes.

What have we become? Is this what we want? A world where our supposed political comedians prop up the establishment and corporate news without question? Where they present every political choice as binary? The job of the satirist is to wake people up, to help them see the truth, and hopefully do it with a few laughs. The people on TV right now are none of this.

Don’t get me wrong, there is excellent satire and commentary right now, mostly online, on Twitter, and in print, but network and cable political comedy is hugely disappointing and mostly unwatchable. And while I take solace in the fact that most millennials don’t watch much TV, it’s still alarming that so many do and do so unquestioningly.

I guess what I’m saying is, I miss mainstream political satire that had some teeth and I miss Jon Stewart, flaws and all.