Yesterday at the University of Denver, Jon Stewart ripped the 24-hour cable news beast for the current campaign craziness. We’ve often chastised the media here for the 600 word newsfeed rip, place two opposing quotes, add an expert opinion and presto! News.

Jon has a history of trying to get news outlets to do their job as in this Crossfire appearance that some believe eventually cost Tucker Carlson his job with the network.

 
But the Comedy Central team with tongue-in-cheek, razor sharp wit and biting satirical interview segments will broadcast live from the convention all week. Stewart took his swing though at breakfast challenging the “established” media to defend their ‘cozy’ relationship with the candidates, their tendency to simply regurgitate campaign spin as political coverage and castigated Fox News in particular as “an appendage of the Republican Party..

He saved his best shots for the 24-hour cable news networks CNN, FOX and MSNBC, which he called “gerbil wheels” continually spinning to fill the time and charged that the media had “abdicated” it’s responsibility to the “slow-witted beast,” creating a “false sense of urgency” as reporters “follow the veins that have been mined,” instead of pursuing serious and in-depth reporting.

FOX News continues to stand behind a Pew Research poll calling them the most balanced network on air. To which he replied, “I’m stunned to see Karl Rove on a news network as an analyst.” FOX, always willing to raise the debate to debate to I am rubber you are glue told The Huffington Post (while picking on the poorly watched Oscars telecast he hosted dominated by foreign films and actors…), “But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon, as evidenced by the crash-and-burn ratings of this year’s Oscars telecast.”

Stewart also took dead aim at off-the-record dinners with politicians, such as a barbecue in March at John McCain’s Arizona ranch. “That colors your vision of them so clearly and so profoundly,” he said. When New York Times columnist David Brooks and others challenged him saying there is value in getting to know candidates privately, Stewart stood his ground: “I don’t say access is useless. But the more you get sucked into it, the more you become part of that machinery.”

Every four years John gets it right. Let’s hope it sticks this time.