If Tucker Carlson is what you get when you detach truth from reality, The Problem With Jon Stewart is what happens when you don’t sew them back together well enough. You can pollute conversations with the best of intentions. You can mislead millions of people while you’re trying to bring some clarity to the conversation.
Stewart’s very first brand-name guest on his very first talk show— The Jon Stewart Show on MTV, which premiered nearly 30 years ago on October 25, 1993—was the self-anointed “King of All Media” himself, Howard Stern.
If this had happened before 2015, Jon Stewart would have had a chance to dig into the landmark decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade after nearly 50 years almost immediately.
The whole thing went down in history as Jon Stewart versus Tucker Carlson, with Stewart the champion by first-round knockout. Within months, CNN canceled Crossfire, hurtling Stewart into a position of political influence and superstardom that few comics in America have ever reached.