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by Sarah Hall Oct 19, 2004, 1:45 PM PT Habitual funnyman Jon Stewart dropped his comic demeanor and adopted a serious 'tude on last Friday's edition of Crossfire. While Stewart's appearance on the show was ostensibly to promote his new bestselling book, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, he instead incited a media brawl with the hosts of the CNN debatefest.
The host of Comedy Central's Daily Show accused the Crossfire helmers of "partisan hackery" and suggested that conservative gabber Tucker Carlson needed to matriculate at a journalism school. Stewart also poked fun at Carlson's signature bow tie and in a particularly heated moment, referred to Carlson as a "dick." Both Carlson and cohost Paul Begala seemed taken aback by the unsmiling Stewart, who asked them repeatedly to "stop hurting America." Carlson pleaded with Stewart to "be funny," but Stewart replied, "No. I'm not going to be your monkey." Carlson told Stewart that he was much more fun on his own show, to which Stewart answered, "I think you're as much of a dick on your show as on any other." It was 13 minutes of television that reached almost instant Internet infamy. By Tuesday, more than 700,000 people had downloaded the Crossfire clip from ifilm.com, the site reported; CNN said 867,000 people caught the exchange on television as it occurred. Meanwhile buzz about the segment spread like wildfire over the Web. A Google.com search Tuesday for "Jon Stewart" and "Crossfire" netted 23,800 links. According to MIT's Blogdex, which tracks weblog activity, the transcripts of the Crossfire segment, originally posted on CNN.com late Friday, was the number one link among bloggers early Tuesday. By mid-afternoon, the CNN transcripts, the ifilm link and a Stewart-Crossfire blog entry were all in the Top 10. The Beltway-based blog Wonkette.com has labeled the exchange "TuckerGate." The video clip is already a favorite on the Web, with at least a half-dozen sites screening the segments in some form. The clip is also a hit on file-sharing sites; a Morpheus search for the Stewart video Tuesday found nearly 40 matches. While Carlson said Monday that he thought Stewart "looked ridiculous" in his Crossfire appearance, Stewart has been hailed as a hero by Internet pundits who applauded him for his free-thinking. "Given a chance to say absolutely what he thought, Stewart took it," wrote Salon.com's Charles Taylor. "He accomplished what almost never happens on television anymore: He made the dots come alive." Stewart, himself, explained his Crossfire behavior with his usual wry wit. "Let's face it, I was dehydrated," he said on Monday's Daily Show, "I had always in the past mentioned to friends and people I meet on the street that I think the show blows. I thought it was only the right thing to do to go say it to them personally on their program. "Here's the thing about confronting someone on their show. They're there. "Uncomfortable!" Stewart admitted the Crossfire commentators had gotten in a few licks of their own. "They said I wasn't being funny. And I said to them, 'I know that, but tomorrow I will go back to being funny, and your show will still blow.' " "He was dead serious. That's the shocking thing," Carlson told the Los Angeles Times of Stewart's appearance. "I thought it was bizarre. Really odd and really boorish. I can't remember dealing with anyone so sanctimonious." Carlson's not the first conservative host to come to verbal blows with Stewart. Last month, Bill O'Reilly said that Daily Show viewers were "stoned slackers" and "dopey kids," during Stewart's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor. However, a national poll revealed that in fact Daily Show viewers were better educated and more affluent than Factor viewers, and 78 percent more likely than the average American to have four years or more college education. In contrast, Factor viewers were only 24 percent more likely than the average adult to have four years or more of college education. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, O'Reilly.
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