Jon Stewart: Man in the Middle?

Like most human beings with discriminating taste, I love me some Jon Stewart. I was a fan well before the Daily Show, and then when he perfected that format and became one of the first mainstream news sources to even raise criticism of the Bush Administration…well, that’s when I totally fell for the guy.

Image by Mez Love via Flickr

I realize that many of those human beings with discriminating taste will disagree with me, but I actually don’t think of Stewart as a liberal. Stephen Colbert, liberal, yes. Colbert even has activism in his heart, much to his credit. I think of Stewart more as an outraged moderate. He’s voted for both parties — remember how cozy he was with McCain before granddaddy went full-on bonkers? — and when he got in Bush’s face, it was largely on moderate ideas such as gay rights and not-invading-countries-under-false-pretenses.

Don’t get me wrong…I wish we had more outraged moderates speaking forcefully on widely popular measures. …universal health care…taxing the rich… But might it be a sign of how far to the right our media has traveled that Stewart is seen as a paragon of liberals?

That’s one reason I found it interesting to hear what Scott DePace, the right-wing director of Howard Stern’s TV show, had to say when questioned about the political leanings of his wife Pamela DePace, the production of the Daily Show.

I would say my wife leans to the right, as well as many people on the Daily Show. I’ve been to parties with the Daily Show crew and there’s quite a few of them who are conservative, so don’t assume.

The quote is from the following episode of Fine Time with Rachel Fine, but be warned that it’s mostly insider trivia about the Howard Stern Radio Show, with no additional material about the Daily Show.