Stewart Watch

Yesterday I was lamenting the fact that despite Preznit Bush admitting to a conspiracy to commit torture, the news media was essentially ignoring the story. Except that bastion of serious news coverage, JON STEWART!

Dubbing the White House the "House of Pain," Jon Stewart shows clips from a recent ABC News report on the White House torture meetings, and explains: "[T]he story is that the highest levels of this administration not only knew of these techniques and condoned them, but actively managed the interrogations."

Guest Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, tells Stewart: "I'm sure that none of them were happy about discussing what they were discussing."

Stewart scoffs at Goldsmith's defense: "But isn't that saying: We will abide by the rules, unless we're in trouble? Isn't that -- when you talk about human rights and those types of things, you don't talk as though we will honor these human rights unless we feel a certain fragility of our own safety. The whole point of being founded on that bedrock -- you know, the Constitution -- is that it exists in tough times. It's what we cling to in tough times."

To which Goldsmith replies: "If you're in that situation . . . you have an intense responsibility to keep people safe."

In part two of his interview with Goldsmith, Stewart says: "My position is: Free societies are not safe -- and that's the price you pay for your freedom. And you can't have it both ways."

As usual, the comedian Jon Stewart does a better job covering the news than serious media. Isn't that pathetic?