John Stewart Lampoons Chris Matthews

I wasn't going to post anymore today, but I couldn't resist this gem:



I saw this posted by Atrios and wow, is it fascinating on so many levels. Best line is when Stewart tells Matthews, who's there to plug his shitty book, "I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life."

To Matthews this appearance is a bust because Stewart refuses to kiss his ass and say what a great book it is. He clearly sees his book as a commodity like new toothpaste rather than a set of ideas one should be prepared to defend or actually believe in. He behaves as though any kind of honest dialogue about what one has written is off limits, as if he's offended that John Stewart would dare question the essential and self-evident brilliance of his thesis. How dare you, is Matthews' tone, criticize my book. As though Stewart has violated the law that says anyone who comes to plug a book gets a free pass on their stupid undergraduate ideas. (No offense to any undergraduates who might be out there.) It seems as though Matthews has come up with this clever little trope--"Life is a Campaign"--and just can't fathom that anyone would disagree with what to him is a universal truth. It gets so bad that Matthews actually pulls the book out of Stewart's hands. I thought he might cry.

It's also pretty clear that to Matthews, life really is all about getting and accumulating, winning and losing. It's all about selling yourself. I couldn't help but think back to Frank Luntz's book, because it too doesn't deal with what's right or honest, but what will trick people into accepting your agenda, whether it's good for them or not. When Stewart makes this argument, Matthews tells him that that book has already been written, it's the Bible.

Crazy stuff. Once again, Stewart reveals himself to be one of the best journalists working.