By Eileen Fleming
The real impact of Jon Stewart and how the bogus anchor influenced real anchors is a story in progress; but for this reporter it all began when The Daily Show went back on the air nine nights after THAT DAY we call 911.
Watch it HERE
Jon began by asking, “are you OK?” and then apologized for being another “shaken host” before he got back to his work of making US laugh and THINK!
Jon spoke of one of his first memories at age five when Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and how this country has been tested before and will be again.
Jon spoke my heart when he reminded US we were judging “these criminal masterminds” because of “the color of their skin.”
In my reflection of THAT DAY we call 911, I wrote “human nature is to strike back and seek revenge, but we have the witness of Christ, Gandhi, and Reverend King how to effectively respond to violence. I hope and pray this president follows their ways, but I see hawks circling.”
Jon spoke about his post 911 view from his Greenwich Village Apartment and when the Twin Towers fell it re-exposed the Statue of LIBERTY and liberty means FREEDOM.
I lived in an apartment in Greenwich Village for the first three years of my life twenty years before the Twin Towers were built. My first major memory was at age nine when President Kennedy was assassinated.
As Jon spoke about Reverend King’s Dream, I recalled one of mine from childhood: becoming an investigative journalist and because The Media was NOT asking my questions about THAT DAY we call 911,
I became one!
Later in the show when Jon met his “hero” Peter Jennings, I recalled my childhood hero:
Brenda Starr- a fictional, redheaded, ace reporter for the metropolitan daily, The Flash. Brenda traveled the world searching for unusual and usually dangerous stories and she always knew when someone was not telling the truth.
Last week, Dylan Byers wrote for POLITICO , “The Daily Show,” has had an immeasurable influence on American politics, media and satire, members of the Washington political establishment said Tuesday night.
Dan Pfeiffer, the longtime adviser to President Barack Obama stated:
Few people in media had the ability to influence the political debate like Jon Stewart
He essentially invented a new way to deliver the news that spoke to a younger generation less trusting of the traditional sources but still very interested in the world.
Jon Stewart conducted some of the toughest and most insightful interviews of the president.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren TWEETED: “Washington is rigged for the big guys — and no person has more consistently called them out for it than Jon Stewart. Good luck, Jon!”
Robert Lichter, author of “Politics Is a Joke: How TV Comedians Are Remaking Political Life” and director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University described Stewart as “a seminal figure” adding:
Unlike any of the other TV comedians, he goes after the media a lot.
The media and journalists are as likely targets as politicians for him, and that made him into not just America’s leading late night satirist, but also, in a way, America’s leading comic media critic.
In general, he is a journalist.
He is a journalist with tongue in cheek but a journalist nonetheless.
But he’s doing journalism.
Because of the events of Sept 11, 2001, a Media that was NOT asking my questions coupled with my faith in the NONVIOLENT Jesus and friendship with a 1948 Palestinian Muslim refugee, I made my first of eight investigative journeys to both sides of The Wall in Israel Palestine in 2005.
Inspired by The Daily Show Correspondents, Brenda Starr, Dorothy Day and because I stumbled into meeting Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Mordechai Vanunu [who told me how Israel deceived America about their WMD Facility during the JFK and LBJ administrations but beginning with Nixon all USA Presidents have colluded in Israel’s nuclear deceptions] I founded WeAreWideAwake.org with this Mission Statement:
WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America…WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole truth.
We who Are Wide Awake are compelled by the “fierce urgency of Now” [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land, and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist POV.
When I learned of the motor vehicle death of CBS correspondent Bob Simon, I recalled my gratitude for him and “60 Minutes” for airing the 2012 report regarding the Christian Exodus from the Holy Land.
I was overjoyed because he was not just covering the beat I have since 2005, but also because he did not back down from exposing Ambassador Michael Oren’s Zionist paranoia.
Watch it HERE!
Because President Obama still has time to earn his Nobel Peace Prize and before Jon Stewart departs The Daily Show, my new dream is that Jon will interview Obama regarding Israel’s Nuclear Weapons and go on to produce his next movie regarding the ‘big get’ that “60 Minutes” was offered but did not get:
Mordechai Vanunu: Israel’s Snowden and Photographer of its WMD Facility
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.
In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl.
Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/
- Pollard Free in Israel: Vanunu Remains Captive - January 3, 2021
- Response to Israeli expert on whistleblowers and The Matter of Mordechai Vanunu - September 19, 2020
- America’s 19th 9/11, Stand or Fall - September 3, 2020