stewart grills dean; daily show now more legit than cnn

thursday night's episode of the daily show featured '04 netroots kook candidate and current democratic party chair howard dean. dean had a few interesting things to say, including the previously unreported fact that he will find a way for florida and michigan to have delegates at the national convention in denver:



note: thedailyshow.com has every segment from every single stewart-era daily show. it's pretty sweet.

all the belligerent zealots and braindead talking heads in the news media should pay close attention to what jon stewart does here - he conducts a friendly yet tough interview, calling out problems with the current primary campaign process and dismissing all the bullshit gossip that passes for legitimate media in this country. rev. wright and the bosnia sniper thing were only referenced as footnotes to bring up the point that the entire process is fubar.

say what you will about stewart's bias to the left - it's out in the open, and not swept under the table in the name of 'objective' reporting. whether we like to admit it or not, every single piece of information communicated from another source is going to be biased in some way shape or form.

i've had this conversation with several people, and nobody seems to disagree - it's safe to say that the daily show has become one of the more legitimate sources of political commentary and discourse on network television, and often contains more factual information about the news. congratulations to the big cable and broadcast news programs - you're being outdone by comedy central.

we all know that fox news is a complete joke, and future generations will rightfully dismiss it as yellow journalism at best and far-right nationalist propaganda at worst. while there are likely still some legitimate journalists left everywhere in the media machine (former sportscenter god keith olbermann has been possessed by the ghost of edward r murrow for about 10 years), these news organizations are quickly getting lost in the explosion of media options we've seen in the last couple decades, and now have resorted to getting our attention by using the lowest common denominator: hot girls and explosions.

maybe this is what tv's all about. maybe grandma was right - it does rot your brain. it's no coincidence that the development of writing and its subsequent replacement of visual culture made us way smarter. i guess it makes sense that the court jester is king in a land full of fools.