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Jon
Stewart makes 9-11 history
Helpless Dems, responders saved by comic
Did the bill pledging federal funds
for the health care of 9/11 responders become law in the
waning hours of the 111th Congress only because a comedian took it up
as a personal cause?
And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart - despite all his
protestations that what he does
has nothing to do with journalism - the modern-day equivalent of Edward
R. Murrow?...
Though the scale of the impact of Mr. Stewart's telecast on public
policy may not measure up
to the roles that Mr. Murrow and Mr. Cronkite played...the comparison
is legitimate because
the law almost surely would not have moved forward without him... But
comedy on television,
more than journalism on television, may be the most effective outlet
for stirring debate and
effecting change in public policy.
I can't find the clip, of course, but it was devastating TV.
While the GOP was telling the 9-11 first responders to go fuck themselves,
Stewart was running old clips of Rethugs praising the bravery of these heroes.
One after another, the Rethugs were plenty ready to give words to these sick and dying heroes,
but the only money that could part with was tax cuts for billionaires, the sons of bitches.
But Jon Stewart shamed the GOP into muzzling Tom Coburn.