Jon Stewart makes his grand case against the right-wing outrage machine

(Image credit: The Daily Show)

published 26 February 2015

On Wednesday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart put 16 years of watching Fox News to use, methodically (and using Vine) laying out his indictment of the political right's "chronically angry war for ideological purity." Most of Stewart's segments have a news hook — this one was his own retirement, and how conservative pundits and personalities have used it to dismiss The Daily Show as a bunch of dishonestly edited snippets of their shows, juxtaposed to make conservatives look bad.

After challenging Fox News to a "lie-off" (in his voice usually reserved for Sen. Lindsey Graham), Stewart essentially outlined his thesis about the conservative media universe. They don't care about whether or not he's lying, Stewart said. "What matters to the right is discrediting anything that harms their side. That's their prime directive, and unlike Capt. Kirk, they f--ing stick with the prime directive." It infects everything Fox News does, he added. Conservatives aren't trying to fix America, "the country they purport to love," they're trying to make education, voting rights, science, and government "reinforce their partisan conservative ideological viewpoint." And it's working: Institutions continually cave to the right, Stewart said, but they should stop: You can never "sate the beast." Case, rested. So where does Stewart go from here? —Peter Weber

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.