Matthew Christ's column on Monday over-glorified Jon Stewart as our nation's court jester who leads a mob in finding the fallacies in claims made by financial news networks in today's economic crisis and in ordinary news networks heading into the Iraq War. I think a criticism of Stewart is warranted today.
In 2003, a particularly popular president gave the country a plan that told us that war was imminent; we'd spend a lot, but it is necessary for us to be safe in the future. In 2009, a particularly popular president again presented our country with a plan to battle this bad economy; we'll spend a lot, but it is necessary for us to be safe in the future. Stewart got it right in not blindly following the popularity of President George W. Bush after September 11, and by asking, "is this really necessary?"
President Barack Obama is being attacked by some at CNBC who wish not to follow blindly his master plan to protect us from a faltering economy, just as Stewart did in 2003. Yet now this court jester dropped his pitch fork and jumped on the Obama bandwagon. I liked Stewart more when he questioned the popular president in seemingly unnecessary ventures. Perhaps now we should question him.
