Jeremy Shahill----- Black Water

[Monkeyman]

Run time: 05:52 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGopvSN16Q   Posted on YouTube: April 22, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 22, 2007 By DU Member: Monkeyman Views on DU: 1787

 
Underground Bush's & Cheney's Military

[pberq]

1. Kick & Nominated

[patrice]

2. You know, I've never been real impressed with Jon Stewart's grasp

of the issues. I know he's real popular, but maybe that's because he does undercut both sides and maybe I wouldn't mind that so much if he were more discriminating in what exactly he destroys. From my perspective, he really is more about undercutting, more than anything else. That's the highest priority, no discrimination about what needs to be undercut and what doesn't.

"Even though he's (Bush) only got a year and a half" pretty much prooves he's not to be trusted. He either failed to see or didn't care about the significance of the information Skahill is bringing out.

I've already stopped watching Colbert (amongst several others), because I'm tired of Bullshit; I am now adding Jon Stewart to that list. Just like in "Rock 'n Roll" commercial Success corrupts. Jon Stewart is a sell-out. I will not be watching him anymore.

[IndyOp]

3. I don't think he gets it and, therefore, I don't think he is a sell out...

He doesn't get that it is both Dems & Reps who've happily pandered to the military-industrial complex to be elected.

Still - I am pleased as all get out to see this material on a "mainstream show."

Jon got in at least one good question, "What is the difference between funding Blackwater and funding GE - they are both members of the military-industrial complex..." He was setting up Scahill to answer a good question and providing information to the still-sleeping masses.

[patrice]

4. I also am very pleased to see this information in the MSM.

That's why I am so disappointed with Stewart's handling of it.

I have to confess that sometimes I can't tell if Stewart (and those like him, such as Colbert) doesn't/don't have the insight or if he does and is pretending he doesn't, or if he just doesn't care and is just playing his pre-defined role "the Deconstructor", I suspect the latter, hence my reaction.

As an ex-high school teacher, I will admit how provocative all of those roles are, in terms of triggering cognitive reactions, but if no re-constructive principle is at least suggested, the result is nothing but deconstruction and, as often as I hear W.B. Yeats's The Second Coming quoted lately, I think most of us know where that leads.

I don't expect anyone to be an exclusive advocate for my views, deconstruction AND dialectic ARE essential, but I DO hope journalists know enough about how things actually work to make ethical Choices about the effects of what they do. They could begin by identifying how important a topic is and not treating their own little jokes and punditry as of equal in value with certain Facts. I have Scahill's book and I think what he is telling us is so important Stewart should have treated it differently. You're right though, he's probably not a sell out, but he probably DOES need to do more "due dilligence".

I'm very disappointed in Stewart and I just admitted to myself that this isn't the first time.

[progressoid]

5. Yeah, I was a little underwhelmed by his enthusiasm.

Just the idea of mercenaries patroling the streets of a US city should have been enough to get a bigger rise out of him.

To be fair, outside of his show and NPR, I haven't heard anything from the corporate media about this. So any exposure is good, but it would have been nice to get a little ...you know... WFT? from him.

[patrice]

6. I guess one of the things that shocked me was that Jon seemed

to think it was some sort of Solution to the problems caused by the Invasion of Iraq: the Troops didn't sign up/ had no choice about a War based on Lies, but Private Contractors do have a choice; Problem Solved.

Perhaps the information really is New to JS and he hasn't done any thinking about it.

[NewJeffCT]

7. Umm

Stewart only has a small amount of time with each guest - he most likely had somebody yelling in his ear to wrap it up in X seconds... and, being a professional, he wrapped it up in that time. He doesn't have a full hour with no commercials to go into great detail on every topic. He doesn't have the luxury of saying, "well, let's extend this one guy that nobody has ever heard of for another few minutes so he can talk more about Blackwater." He let the guy make his points about Blackwater, including the withdrawal of troops but not the mercenaries.

[Laurab]

8. I love Jon Stewart, but I was disappointed with that interview.

I read that book, and I've heard really good interviews with the author on radio programs. Maybe Jon didn't read the book - I couldn't understand why he didn't seem to understand the problems with Blackwater. They're just plain terrifying to me.

I almost never disagree with Jon during his interviews, but I really think he didn't do his homework on this one. I was actually really surprised, as well as disappointed.

[underpants]

9. Jon reads every book on his show (I haven't) but Scahill, frankly, came off as shillish

He was clearly pandering to the crowd and Stewart clearly wasn't impressed with the book are at least he had different expectations of it.

Having read several books that he has featured on his show I have to say that my take on the books is fairly represented in his interview even though he tends to be overly "fair" meaning not wanting to be seen as a billboard for the left. That could be the case here but mostly Scahill failed to expose anything new in the book.

Again I haven't read the book so factor that in there.