Another sad tale from 'Bizarro World'...
By Brad Friedman on 6/22/2004, 1:09pm PT  

It's a sad state of affairs in America when the fake news show, The Daily Show on Comedy Central is doing some of the best journalism on television.

To that end, take a look at this sequence wherein The Daily exposes Dick Cheney (and with him, the entire Bush Administration) to be the manipulative dissemblers that they are.

Jon Stewart is discussing the Administration's recent bone picking with the Media for supposedly mischaracterizing the 9/11 Commission's report that Iraq and al-Qaeda had no substantial cooperative ties and what the Bush Administration may or may not have said about all of that in the lead up to war.

Cheney is seen on tape speaking to a CNBC reporter in an "exclusive" interview:

CHENEY (on tape): One thing we had is the, uh, gravity of a Czech intelligence service report saying that, uh, [9/11 hijacker] Mohammed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official at the embassy on April 9th, 2001. That's never been proven, that's never been refuted.

STEWART (live): "Never been proven, never been refuted"?...Well, I'm not unconvinced! ... [audience laughter] ... For the record, the 9/11 Commission said of the alleged Iraq/Atta encounter or meeting; "We do not believe that such a meeting occurred." But still that's okay because Vice President Cheney never said such a meeting occurred... He just said that you couldn't prove that it hadn't. He never acted like Atta had had that meeting and that meeting had been confirmed. Am I, am I right?

CNBC (on tape): You have said in the past that it was quote "pretty well confirmed..."

CHENEY (on tape): No, I never said that.

CNBC (on tape): Okay...

CHENEY (on tape): I never said that...

CNBC (on tape): I think that is...

CHENEY (on tape): That is...Absolutely not...

STEWART (live): He never said that? Hmm....

CHENEY (on tape, 12/9/01, Meet the Press): It's been pretty well confirmed...[audience cheers] that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April.

[cheers continue]

STEWART (live): Mr. Vice President...I have to inform you...your pants are on fire. [laughter, applause]

Funny? Yes. But also terribly sad that such "reporting" on what our "leaders" are saying to us, and the lies that they are selling to justify a horrendous foreign policy, is virtually only being done on a "fake news" show on a basic cable comedy channel! A disgraceful indictment of the supposedly "liberal" media if you ask me.

That wasn't the only ball that The Daily hit outta the park on last night's show. Stewart's interview with Stephen F. Hayes, author of The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Sadam Hussein Has Endangered America was nothing less than brilliant. If I find time later today, I'll try and transcribe some key moments...Yes, really good journalism.

But for now, for "fair and balanced" sake, here's a great line from a Clinton story that lead last night's show featuring tape from Sunday's 60 Minutes Dan Rather interview:

CLINTON (on tape): ...If there had been no Kenneth Starr...if we had different kind of people, I would have just said "Here are the facts, I'm sorry, deal with it however you please."

STEWART (live): "If there had been no Ken Starr"...he would have confessed! [laugher] You know I'll say this for Bill Clinton, his integrity is at it's highest, when the situation is at it's most hypothetical. [audience laugher, cheers]

So there's a bone for you Fake Conservatives. Unfortunately, while the Clinton bit is funny, yes, it has no importance to anything. His "lies" haven't lead to the death of thousands of innocent human beings. I wish I could say the same for the Dick Cheney stuff...And for the media's part in standing down and/or aiding and abetting that effort throughout the entire shameful chapter.

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