Ambassador of a Better America

During the U.S. presidential campaign in 2004, Jon Stewart was invited as a guest on a political talk show on news network CNN called Crossfire, where the “o” is depicted as a target. If you want to understand Stewart’s importance to American media, politics and the entertainment industry, then it helps to take a look at this appearance of his on YouTube. Without formats like Crossfire, the success of Stewart’s own late-night show “The Daily Show” would not have been possible — the show he is now saying goodbye to after 16 years as its host. “You are doing theater, when you should be doing debate,” Stewart pleaded with the two moderators of CNN’s Crossfire, who were known to produce particularly heated debates between political opponents.

Stewart benefited from this travesty of political culture. From such theater, his program achieved success in procuring the best material. “Which, by the way, thank you both.” However, it was a desperate acknowledgement that Stewart had less material than he would have liked. “Stop hurting America,” he begged, which seriously concerned people at CNN. Crossfire was actually canceled a few months later. The American media landscape and 24-hour news hysteria, of course, didn’t change at all.

To date, such television programs have provided the template that transformed Stewart and his Daily Show and quickly brought them to be TV opinion makers, often recounting some of the madness of the conservative Fox News channels to fill their airtime. Stewart often commented only with body language, with which he could so inimitably express the deep resignation that he felt and was often much more fun and liberating than any sort of spite.

The Most Trusted News Anchor

When Stewart had his famous appearance on Crossfire, he was already on his way to becoming an institution for those Americans who felt more and more alienated from their country during the Bush administration. Born in 1962 in New York as Jon Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, the comedian had taken over the rather insignificant Daily Show on the cable TV channel Comedy Central in 1999. It was mainly due to disappointment in U.S. media, which had damaged their own credibility with uncritical positions on the war in Iraq, that Stewart’s criticism of the media became so popular. In a vote on the most trusted news anchor, he once received more votes than the big names of real newscasters on CNN and NBC. Stewart himself understood, of course, that it was not about him, but about mistrust that had become widespread.

The war in Iraq and the false information that was used to justify the fact that the Bush administration was never held accountable were Stewart’s major themes. One time at one of many, many television show awards that he and his team of writers won for The Daily Show, a video presented clips, before each writer’s name was read, of the memorable “I don’t recall” and “I don’t remember” statements that members of the Bush administration had given to investigative committees when they were asked about their breach of conduct. The montage was a fundamental part of his show, editing statements of politicians along with snippets that show the same politicians once arguing the exact opposite. Stewart was as happy as could be: “Wow, what a hassle it would be if the two met each other!”

When Stewart brought an end to his 2,597th episode on Tuesday night with an emotional speech announcing the end of The Daily Show within the foreseeable future — perhaps as early as September, maybe by the first of the coming year — a man in the audience shouted, “We love you, Jon!” Social media outlets joined expressions of people from around the world thanking Stewart for his program and saddened by his departure. In Germany, where until 2009 an abridged version of The Daily Show was available on the local branch of Comedy Central, hardly anyone followed the show on television. The Daily Show was but until recently — and this is a rarity in the international media jungle of geographical restrictions — available anywhere in the world, every single episode in full on the website. Hence the show found a small but very enthusiastic audience in Germany. Perhaps the executives understood that Jon Stewart is important not only for his native audience, but also for America’s foreign image, a showpiece demonstrating that we in the U.S. shake our heads at the same things in America that those in Europe can hardly believe: the performances of Sarah Palin, the jazzed up news and the unbelievable polarized political landscape.

With regards to political attitude, Jon Stewart was received by German television audiences with open arms. His legacy in Germany is not of criticizing conservative politics and media in the U.S.; America already has enough critics in its own country. His merit was demonstrating a counter-image, since perhaps anti-Americanism after the Iraq war could have been even more severe had Stewart not upheld the open, smart, funny America. It was not about politics, but everything: American culture, entertainment and science. The Daily Show also became a representative of American culture, an ambassador, which is so far Stewart’s least appreciated accomplishment. In a way, it replaced “The Simpsons” in the 90s, a window into the still great “Culture Nation: USA,” in which accomplishments are accompanied sometimes by loving commentary and sometimes by irony. The hit series “Game of Thrones” and the successful book “Fifty Shades of Grey” were both phenomena that Daily Show television audiences came to know in their weekly ritual of 20-minute infusions of Jon Stewart before they were also largely covered in German media. Stewart also regularly invited authors of political, scientific and contemporary history books that were making waves instead of the usual stars and starlets. He offered an educational program, a television feature, as a counterclaim to the news journalism that he attacked.

One of his points of criticism has always been that hectic news makers couldn’t stand to illuminate an event in peace, that they must always move on to the next event; what are the consequences, what are the implications of this and what does it mean for the presidential elections in two years? As it so happens now, the U.S. media is speculating as to who could take his place in the The Daily Show’s host’s chair. Because Stewart has never forgotten his beginnings in stand-up comedy and always encouraged new talent, The Daily Show has brought forth many comic greats, from Steve Carell to Stephen Colbert to John Oliver. A successor to Stewart could be found among many young talents. However, as is the big dilemma among the best satirists, the successor would need to be another Jon Stewart. Perhaps he doesn’t require a successor, as the show’s material leans toward absurdity only when the opportunity for commentary is there.