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John Stewart for President: 2008

John Stewart is my hero. Not only is he hilarious, but he seems brazenly unafraid of saying what he feels. His appearance on Crossfire is amazing, if only because of the platitudes one expects from any show on TV these days. To confront the hosts in the manner he did…well, it was brilliant. Best quote of the show:

CARLSON: I do think you’re more fun on your show. Just my opinion.
STEWART: You know what’s interesting, though? You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.

To see the clip, you can Bittorrent it, or stream it from iFilm.

Second best exchange:

STEWART: See, the thing is, we need your help. Right now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations. And we’re left out there to mow our lawns.
BEGALA: By beating up on them? You just said we’re too rough on them when they make mistakes.
STEWART: No, no, no, you’re not too rough on them. You’re part of their strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it. . . hacks.

EDIT: Another stream here, and the CNN transcript here.

EDIT: On “The Daily Show” on Monday following this altercation, Jon closed his opening monologue with:

“They came back at me pretty good. They said that I wasn’t being funny. And I said to them…I know that. But tomorrow I’ll go back to being funny, and your show will still blow.”

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

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