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Hosts under fire
Jon Stewart takes the hosts of "Crossfire" to task
Posted Saturday, October 30 2004 10:48:14 pm
Producers of CNN’s “Crossfire” expected the Friday, October 15 show to be raucously funny when they booked comedian Jon Stewart on the show. But audiences found themselves entertained for different reasons as Stewart lashed out against the hosts and the show for “hurting America.”
Stewart, host of the satirical fake-news show “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central and author of the number one best-seller “America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction,” brought the debate back to “Crossfire” hosts Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson.
Stewart, known for criticizing the media, acknowledged that he had publicly called “Crossfire” and other debate-style shows “bad.”
“I felt that wasn’t fair, and I should come here and tell you that it’s not so much that it’s bad, as it’s hurting America,” Stewart told the hosts. “So I wanted to come here today and say stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.”
After Stewart accused both Begala and Carlson of being “political hacks,” Carlson tried to take control of the situation by trying to ask questions about Stewart’s book and trying to ease the tension by telling Stewart that “we’re here to love you.”
“I’m not. I’m here to confront you,” Stewart said in response, “because we need help from the media, and they’re hurting us.”
Freshman Katie Doland, who volunteers for “Crossfire” and attended the taping with her family, said that the reaction in the audience was shock and fear as they watched with “nervous laughter.”
“We seriously thought there was going to be a fight on stage,” Doland said.
During the commercial breaks they continued to argue and, following the show, the three men stayed on stage and continued their heated discussion.
“They were exchanging phone numbers and ripping up papers and throwing them at each other,” Dolan said.
Stewart was invited on the show to promote his new book and to bring what he does nightly on “The Daily Show” to “Crossfire.”
Sam Fiest, senior executive producer of “Crossfire” said via e-mail that he thought the show was “interesting and entertaining.”
“Jon Stewart has long been a critic of the way the media covers politics and we knew that before we invited him on,” he said.
According to Feist, “Jon Stewart stayed in the green-room at GWU talking with the Crossfire hosts and producers for almost 90-minutes following the program. It was a fascinating conversation about politics and the media.”
Feist said that producers will definitely invite Stewart back to the show. “At its core, Crossfire is about a free-exchange of ideas,” he said. “Having guests on who disagree with our hosts is why Crossfire is the longest-running debate show on television.”
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