James Kirchick at Commentary writes about the smug one:
Take, for instance, Stewart’s interview last week with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair interview (hat tip: John McCormack). Stewart tries to mock both Blair and President Bush’s belief that if more countries become democratic, there is less chance they will war with each other. This is called Democratic Peace Theory, it’s been in existence for decades, and is hardly an idea popularized only by rapacious neocons, George W. Bush and Tony Blair. It also, unfortunately for Stewart, has the benefit of being largely true.
In the interview, Stewart thinks he’s laid a clever trap for Blair when he brings up the Falklands War, in which Britain fought with Argentina in 1982 over the latter country’s invasion of the Falklands Islands, territories belonging to the British, as an example proving the failure of Blair’s statement that democracies don’t go to war with one another. After a bit of confused crosstalk about which war was in question, Stewart makes clear that he’s talking about the Falklands. Blair corrects, “Actually at the time Argentina was not a democracy.” (It was ruled by a military junta.) To this, Stewart mutters, “Oh, okay, dammit!” as if he knew this all along and is in on the joke.
I don’t think that there is any media figure who, over the course of the past fifteen years, has made me develop as much rage as Jon Stewart. Since his days at NBC and MTV, he has become worse and worse. Having a room full of yes men at the Daily Show, which makes news out of taking soundbites out of context, has made this guy even more abhorable.
