Olbermann v. Stewart

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Co-blogger R.K. Barry will have a post up later today on the Stewart-Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, but I wanted to say that as much as I like Stewart -- and I'm a huge fan -- I think Keith Olbermann was right in his (fairly gentle) criticism of Stewart's unfortunate tendency to view both the left and the right as equal parts of the problem. As Olbermann tweeted on Saturday, via Mediaite:

It wasn't a big shark but Jon Stewart jumped one just now with the "everybody on Thr cable is the same" naiveté

There's obviously a lot not to like about the news media, including cable news (and, yes, MSNBC, the more liberal network, if hardly as liberal or as partisan as Fox News is conservative and a mouthpiece for the GOP and conservatism generally), but it is ridiculous to assert that Olbermann is akin to, say, O'Reilly or Hannity -- or that, again, the left is equally to blame. What is this "left," after all? Olbermann, Maddow, and Schultz? Oh, please. What are they compared to the entirety of Fox News? Or even to CNN, which, while claiming to be a neutral news organization, thinks that fair and balanced means centrist Democrats and a pile of conservative propagandists? As Olbermann also tweeted:

The America before today's cable wasn't reasonable discussion.It was the 1-sided lockstep of Fox and people afraid of Fox.That got us Iraq.

And:

I wish it were otherwise. But you can tone down all you want and the result will be: the Right will only get LOUDER. Sorry. 

And:

Last comment then I'll drop this:Whatever the losses are Tuesday,will they be because Liberals were too LOUD or because they were too timid?

Too timid. I think that's obvious, despite the Republican propaganda about how Obama is a radical fascist-socialist totalitarian and the media's regurgitating of right-wing talking points to the effect that Obama and the Democrats overreached with their aggressively left-wing agenda -- a claim that is simply insane.

And, unfortunately, Jon Stewart is too timid as well. While he, along with Colbert, is an extremely important liberal-progressive voice, it isn't enough just to blame the media and to seek some "sane" middle ground, just as it's not enough to expose Republicans as a bunch of hypocrites. Yes, the media are to blame for a lot, but the blame needs to be handed out with a sense of proper perspective, not by appealing to a utopian center -- and, yes, it's fine to expose Republicans for what they are, but it's not enough just to laugh at them. They are far too dangerous for that, and, ultimately, in politics, you need to fight -- with rhetoric, sure, as well as with comedy, but also with the other (non-violent) tools at your disposal in a liberal democracy, including GOTV campaigns. And, as R.K. Barry will argue, passion matters.

Yes, passion, passion for the fight, passion for the truth. That seems to be what Stewart is lacking. He might admit as much -- he is, after all, full of self-deprecation -- and perhaps we shouldn't expect much more from him than he gives us night after night, as valuable as that is. But I think it fair to criticize him for succumbing to the myth of the silent majority, the myth of the center that is rational and sane and that, if only allowed to rule, would make America a better place. To me, that "center" of independents is full of apathy and ignorance, and it's what allows the powers-that-be to remain in power, the system to remain dysfunctional, and Republicans to fuck over the American people time and time again.

I suspect that Stewart is a man of genuinely progressive views and values. His interview with President Obama last week, while also somewhat timid, showed him once again to be a thoughtful proponent of progressive politics. But it is rather irresponsible of him to suggest that the left is just as bad as the right -- whether he actually believes this or not is another matter -- and to encourage progressives to tone it down.

America, and the world beyond, certainly does not lack for insanity, and, yes, American politics could do with a healthy dose of sanity, but, with the right descending ever further in madness, with so much of the electorate drugged into submission by endless consumerism and a hopelessly impoverished popular culture (and in many cases by real drugs, both legal and otherwise), and with the left often unable to muster the unity and conviction to fight back, what is really needed is an invigorated liberal-progressive movement for change.

I would hope that Stewart would be part of that. At the very least, he should stop lumping all of us together, left and right alike. Ultimately, after all, you have to fight for what you believe in. And that includes on cable television, where the likes of Olbermann and Maddow, night after night, stand up firmly to the right's lies and deceptions and assaults on all that is good and decent and give voice -- just as Stewart himself does, in a different way -- to our aspirations for a better America and a better world.