MEDIA WINNER: Jon Stewart Former Daily Show host and frequent headliner for this column Jon Stewart is a Media Winner again today for his appearance on The Late Show last night. His comments and back-and-forth with host Stephen Colbert on the Wuhan lab leak theory were a big hit, not to mention pretty on the nose. The presentation was flawlessly entertaining, of course. “I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science,” said Stewart as they were discussing the advances in dealing with pandemics. “Do you mean perhaps there’s a chance that this was created in a lab?” Colbert asked. Stewart scoffed as he responded “A chance? There’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know, who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab! That’s just a little too weird!” The rant and point/counterpoint went on from there in classic Stewart and Colbert style. “How long have you worked for Senator Ron Johnson?” Colbert quipped at one point, prompting Stewart to respond, “This is not a conspiracy!" That was the key comment, and it spawned a yuge trend on Twitter. And not a small amount of victory dancing. Last year, it would have been impossible to do this bit. Even now there's a bit of 'Big Mad' from certain quarters. Naturally. But it was a terrific segment giving voice and accessibility to a debate that should be public and in good faith. Nice job. |