CBS’s “Morning Mornings” show was buzzing with excitement on Monday as they welcomed the return of Jon Stewart as the Monday-only host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” Co-host Gayle King kicked off the interview by noting that both networks are part of Paramount Global, and co-host Tony Dokoupil even paid homage to Stewart’s new location atop Paramount mountain.
“You’re now located atop the Paramount mountain, sir,” gushed Dokoupil. King couldn’t contain her excitement, asking Stewart, “I’m wondering if you’ve missed us as much as we’ve missed you?”
Stewart played coy, responding humbly to King’s praise. “Somebody writes about you, about Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart was a voice of reason in my generation. It’s great to see him returning. There has been no better host of The Daily Show since he left.”
Naturally, the hosts were curious about what led to Stewart’s decision to return to TV, albeit on a limited basis. King asked, “What went into your thought process about, ‘I want to come back, and I only want to come back one night a week for now’?”
Stewart opened up about his previous attempt to speak out on Apple TV Plus, which ended in disappointment when executives didn’t want him to take risks. “I very much wanted to have some kind of place to unload thoughts as we get into this election season… they decided that they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble.”
Of course, the hosts couldn’t talk to Stewart without mentioning his unique ability to call out the truth, rather than playing into the false notion of “both sides.” Dokoupil pointed out, “And a unique allergy to the idea of both sides. You want to call out the truth.”
The interview circled mainly around Stewart’s ability to make an impression on young voters. While some of his material does hit on both parties, to portray his show as ‘balanced’ would be a joke.
Stewart agreed, addressing the flaws in the “both sides” argument. “I think it`s a question of, you know, what are the axes [plural of axis] that we’re working off of? I think generally you like to work off of the difference between corruption and integrity as opposed to right and left or Democrat and Republican.” Stewart continued, “If you focus on integrity and try and expose what you think is absurd or corrupt, it’ll find its way to wherever it finds. But those are the parameters that you’re trying to use.”
When asked if satire is still the best method for getting his message across, Stewart replied, “For me, I think it’s probably the only way I can do it because I don’t really know how else to do it.”
In true Comedy Central fashion, the network took out full-page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post with the slogan, “A Second Term We Can All Agree On.”
At the end of it all what I took from this interview is that the mainstream media is hoping that Stewart will use his comedy to breath new voters into the liberal regime.