By: Greg Mitchell Speaking at a breakfast event in Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention, on Monday, "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart ripped cable news networks but hailed newspapers for their political coverage.
Yet Stewart observed that newspapers are fighting "a losing battle because they're getting overshadowed."
Stewart is in town for his show's Indecision 2008 specials.
Among other descriptives, he labeled the cable news networks "gerbil wheels."
Other highlights from his talk, as observed by Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post: Stewart hit Fox News in particular as "an appendage of the Republican Party." He called Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan an insult "to people with brains. ... Barack Obama could cure cancer and they'd figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster."
Stewart also knocked CNN and MSNBC's "false sense of urgency they create, the sense that everything is breaking news. ... The 24-hour networks are now driving the narratives, and everyone else is playing catch-up."
Kurtz added: "A Fox News spokesman, who was authorized to give the network's response to Stewart's comments but declined to be named, replied that 'Jon's clearly out of touch,' citing a Pew Research Center study showing the network has the most balanced audience in cable news, 39 percent Republicans and 33 percent Democrats. 'But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon, as evidenced by the crash-and-burn ratings of this year's Oscars telecast.'"
CNN reports: "The choice of Joe Biden as Obama's running mate, Stewart said, was refreshing because of the Delaware senator's large personality and endless possibility for jokes. 'Biden is really nice. His style is so effusive and unguarded,' Stewart said. 'He's emotion plus.'
"Stewart said politicians in recent campaigns are 'animatronic' because all of the 'humanity has been managed out of campaigns.' He referenced the back-and-forth during the Pennsylvania Democratic primary over Obama's lack of bowling skills. 'It's stunning where this election is going to be decided on,' he said. 'Or what we allow it to be decided on.'"
An excerpt from Kurtz follows.
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The Comedy Central funnyman touched a nerve when he criticized journalists for having off-the-record dinners with politicians, such as a barbecue in March at John McCain's Arizona ranch. "That colors your vision of them so clearly and so profoundly," he said.
When New York Times columnist David Brooks and others protested that there was value in getting to know candidates privately, Stewart stood his ground: "I don't say access is useless. But the more you get sucked into it, the more you become part of that machinery." And when another reporter accused him of courting the press at the breakfast as skillfully as any officeholder, Stewart called the comparison "crazy."
Stewart, who pokes fun at Obama as a messiah-like figure, warned that comedy has a short shelf life. "An age joke about McCain is at this point somewhat meaningless -- because it's already trite."
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