Jon Stewart Goes After Jonah Goldberg and 'Fascism' -- He Responds

By: E&P Staff Columnist Jonah Goldberg stopped by Comedy Central's "Daily Show" on Wednesday night to tout his provocative new book, "Liberal Fascism." Jon Stewart clearly didn't buy the premise, asking at one point in exasperation, "Organic food is fascist???" and "I must say you are unbelieavably misrepresenting" what the Progressive era was all about.

Apparently the taping went on so long, and with so many nuggets, that (as Stewart had warned) some of it had to be aired in choppy sound bites.

Most touchy moment for Jonah came when Stewart asked him if one of the things he was against was people throwing around the charge "fascism" far too easily. Jonah said yes, then Stewart picked up a copy of the book and simply pointed to the title, "Liberal Fascism" -- adding, so why are you doing this?

Goldberg got angry at one point and accused Stewart of not reading his book.

Hours later, Goldberg's allies over the National Review's "The Corner" demanded that Comedy Central post the entire interview, which will allegedly show their man in a better light. Goldberg himself reviewed the show there, revealing that he knew he was in trouble when the interview went on and on, and heavy editing became inevitable.

There's also an audio interview with Goldberg talking about it at HotAir.com, in which he says he talked to Stewart this morning and complained about the editing of the segment (he had said earlier in the same interview that he had not seen it yet). He calls Stewart the "dashboard saint of the liberal blogs."

Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner posted this: "I can think a good number of other friends and colleagues who have been mistreated by The Daily Show. There are some rare exceptions for the Right-minded ? Bill Kristol's had decent experiences, Rick Santorum remarkably did when his book came out ? but Stewart generally winds up trying to make a joke out of your or your issues, or is just downright unfair. The best shows involve some sort of smart give and take. The Daily Show isn't generally conducive to such a thing. You're either in downright hostile territory, or you're pretending to be something you aren't ? a comedian. It's just not worth it."

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