The first part of Monday's Daily Show is a classic bit of Fox News truth-squadding, with Jon Stewart playing clips of Fox News hosts and guests complaining that liberals and President Obama are politicizing the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting to advance their political agenda — then playing the very same Fox News hosts and guests pushing their political agenda right after two New York Police officers were shot dead last December. He nailed them, especially conservative pundit Rich Lowry.
The next part of the show is a little more complex. Stewart turned to the debate about the Confederate flag in Charleston, arguing that taking it down is the very least South Carolina can do. "In the context of Charleston's extensive Confederate porn industry, the flag is just the money shot," he added. "That town is like Confederate Epcot." To discuss the flag further, he brought on Senior Race Relations Correspondents Jordan Klepper and Jessica Williams, and that's when the show dipped into meta-commentary about race and why it's so hard for white people to take racial criticism from black people. Whether or not the bit, leavened by a "helper whitey" interlude, works, it's an ambitious attempt to dig deeper by the Daily Show staff. You can watch below. Peter Weber
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