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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 05:26 am
An inspired prank from Rolling Stone, which sent witless NYT egomaniac Maureen Dowd to interview Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert:
I thought Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert might be a little nervous to meet with me. I was the real news commentator, after all, and they were the mock. They threw spitballs at presidents; I interviewed presidents before throwing spitballs at them. I had crisscrossed the globe to cover news stories, while these guys just put on dark suits and threw up imported backgrounds on a green screen. No doubt they would try to impress me with some weighty discussion about world affairs or the midterm elections. But when I walked into Colbert’s office at The Colbert Report, just off Tenth Avenue in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, the two barely acknowledged me. Stewart, rumpled in a gray tee over a long-sleeved shirt, khaki cargo pants, black Timberland boots and a Mets cap, was sprawled in a chair with takeout coffee. Colbert, neat in a long-sleeved navy shirt, blue pants and wire-rimmed glasses, was sitting up straight next to him, holding a paper plate of fruit. They were already deep in a weighty discussion.
At last, they turn their attention to me. Their gazes are not, as I’d expected, full of respect. They regard with amused disdain the old-fashioned, phone-book-size Radio Shack tape recorder I’d put on the floor between them.
That’s ten or so self-references from MoDo before she’s even out of her first two paragraphs. Dowd’s subsequent questions for the pair, and her associated observations, are slightly beneath the level you might expect from a j-school kid with special education needs:
• Your shows are like mirrors within mirrors, using a cycle of fakery to get to the truth. You’ve tapped into a sense in society that nothing, from reality shows to Bushworld, is real anymore. Do you guys ever get confused by your hall of mirrors?
• Jon, you’re from stand-up. And Stephen, your background is improv. How does that affect how you approach your work?
• It’s got a lot of levels. My head hurts sometimes watching “The Colbert Report.”
• Stephen, do people come up to you in the supermarket and address you as though you are your character?
• But wouldn’t, say, a President Obama be harder to make fun of than these guys?
Little wonder Stewart said, early during his Dowd interrogation: “I didn’t know we were going to have to be high to do this interview.”
(Via Jim Treacher)
- So she couldn’t even get lucky with them, either?Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 11 03 at 09:31 AM • permalink
- And Iowahawk hits another one out of the park.
(C’mon Tim, you don’t expect me to believe that this was a real article, do you?)
Posted by Sonetka’s Mom on 2006 11 03 at 09:40 AM • permalink
- I blame drugs. Diet drugs.
BTW, wasn’t she able to make a little bit of sense, like 15 years ago ?
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2006 11 03 at 10:45 AM • permalink
- How can MoDo’s head hurt? You have to have something before it can hurt.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 03 at 10:56 AM • permalink
- re #10 and #12….my bad, I thought MoDo was born without a brain. Instead, she merely lost her head. Long ago.
Ah, well, live and learn. Too bad MoDo is far below that level of sentience.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 03 at 12:08 PM • permalink
- It’s all about MoDo. Just like it’s all about Chompsky.
For the left, every issue is about them preening before the world, showing how courageous and good hearted they are. That’s why they routinely cast their adversary (the government, the President, the right side of the spectrum) as menacing and evil. It makes their actions look better than they really are, maybe even heroic.
For the right, we don’t care about how we look as individuals so much. We care about the best results possible.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 11 03 at 12:09 PM • permalink
- This quote is priceless:
I’m not surprised that young people who watch it are well- informed. I read about ten newspapers a day and three newsmagazines a week, and I have my TV tuned to cable news all day, and I still find myself taking notes from The Daily Show.
I can just see the pince-nez and tea things set out on the table.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 03 at 12:11 PM • permalink
- Yeah, and she could probably use some of that wax stuff too Andrea(I presume the references were to the little Belgian Guy).
Why does she bother reading all of that stuff? It’s all written with the same mindset, ergo the same garbage coming out the other end.
What is the difference between the LAT and the NYT. If she wanted to read about CA politics she should read the Sac Bee, but I bet she doesn’t.
- Why should these guys be impressed with her? They’re cult figures, national buzzwords, stars of (in Jon’s case) internationally successful shows and she’s a literally insular writer, cloistered behind two rivers,a shrinking circulation, an internet firewall and her own revolting style. My God, she must have been blinking in the unfamiliar light through the whole interview. And what did they see? A wizened ninth grader.
And what did they see? A wizened ninth grader.
DING DING DING DING!!!!!
We have a winner! That image fits MoDo exactly. Thanks, kiwinews!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 03 at 12:37 PM • permalink
- Kiwi – not to mention that Jon Stewart has had everyone from Senators to top-tier celebrities as guests on his show, and *they* didn’t make him nervous. Why would a journalist? I suspect his job brings him to deal with them all the time.
Then there’s that arrogant assumption that Stewart and Colbert would actually feel subordinate to her because she reports the “real” news (pause for laughter) where they deliver the fake stuff. Modo, they’re @#$king comedians at the top of their game not struggling journalists that peer up at you in admiration, m’kay?
Posted by EmilyJones on 2006 11 03 at 12:41 PM • permalink
- #23
No, it’s in Wyoming. Stand Up is just down the road from No Wood which is just up the road from Ten Sleep.<That famous seen where Ms Desmond moves closer to the camera>
“Hi Jon, is that ‘Spanish Fly’ working yet?”
Re the ninth grader comment. If she had sex with a ninth grade boy could she be arrested for underaged sex?
Re the ninth grader comment. If she had sex with a ninth grade boy could she be arrested for underaged sex?
By her physical age, certainly. Her emotional age? No way.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 03 at 01:36 PM • permalink
I presume the references were to the little Belgian Guy
Nope. I was thinking more of the stereotypical dried-up spinster aunt* who is obsessed with current events but hasn’t left her house for fifty years. Think of that clunky antique tape recorder. Can’t her NYT gig get her a digital recorder? They make them in pens now.
*This figure is usually my ideal but that doesn’t mean the character can’t become a buffoon.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 03 at 01:53 PM • permalink
- Some stupid people are aware of their intellectual deficiencies and are charmingly humble and decent. Some others are somehow innoculated against the knowledge of their mental status.
I cannot read MoDo without great pity for her self parodying stupidity. Doesn’t she have friends and family who can intervene, shut her up, and hsutle her off to a home for has-been journalists?
Come to think of it, working at the NYT, she’s already ensconced in one.
Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2006 11 03 at 02:12 PM • permalink
- MoDo got seriously outclassed.
Stewart and Colbert are experts in thinking on their feet, exposing their strenghs and weaknesses to millions, and quickly learning from their mistakes to hone their talents. I doubt one in a thousand of their fans have even heard of MoDo.
MoDo pecks at a typewriter, refines, refines, and refines her words over and over before she lets them fly…and still gets it wrong. Stewart and Colbert work in a different zone of time than MoDO does.
- 28. Can’t better that.Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 11 03 at 02:42 PM • permalink
I’m not surprised that young people who watch it are well- informed. I read about ten newspapers a day and three newsmagazines a week, and I have my TV tuned to cable news all day, and I still find myself taking notes from The Daily Show.
Perhaps if she put down half of those newspapers and one of those newsmagazines and started reading blogs with the time she freed up, she’d find herself a far sight better informed. I feel certain in saying that things wouldn’t come as such a surprise to her. Hell, I bet “The Daily Show” cribs most of its material directly or indirectly off of a blog somewhere.
Of course, the possibility remains that she is too good for blogs or too professional to waste her time reading them. She’s a New York Times columnist, after all. Better to rely on the Daily Show to do the screening and let her know what’s news, because that’s what comedy shows are for. Also, why waste time reading blogs when you can read 10 newspapers, as someone above pointed out, that all say the same thing. (Really, after the third one, is there any point in going on?)
- O/T But not really.
Ding..Ding…Ding
This thread seems perfect.
CDNC TV just report that Chelsea won’t be handing out free meds. She has just acquired employment at Avenue Capitol( a hedge fund)! I guess this does put the “hedge” in hedge fund. She has no financial experience whatsoever.
Further MoDo factor ensues. They were scrambling to determine what possible benefit Ms Chelsea could have for a fund like this. They grabbed a quote from a reporter at the WSJ indicating that she would be “analyzing public companies” for something. Sorry, didn’t get the whole quote as my body was coming into direct contact with the floor at the time and I cannot multitask at my age.
The fund is run by a bunch of connected Dems if you need a tree to fall on your head.
- #34, PW:
You sure it wouldn’t be: Former billionaire Soros destitute after investment boondoggle, former POTUS William Clinton implicated. Upon questioning, places blame on daughter, Chelsea.
Update: Former POTUS Bill Clinton exonerated, daughter Chelsea to serve 10-15 years federal penitentiary for grand theft.
Update: Former POTUS Mr. Bill Clinton buys France. Source of funding questioned. DNC leadership cries foul. Claims witch hunt against cult hero.
Update: Daughter Chelsea to testify against father, former POTUS W. Clinton regarding funding source for “The French Buy”.
Update: Daughter of former POTUS William Clinton found dead in prison cell, apparent victim of forced suicide.
Update: Former POTUS Bill Clinton sells “tell all” book to publishing house for record 500 million advance.
- “You’ve tapped into a sense in society that nothing, from reality shows to Bushworld, is real anymore.”
Well, let’s see here. Reality [TV] shows aren’t real, and Bushworld is, I think, a MoDo invention. So her premise is based on the concept that she lives in the world of a ninth grade school girl. (H/T: kiwinews)
Uhh, Paco, I think you mean Norma Desmond.
- Grimmy, why would Bubba Jeff want to buy France? By 2014, any wheeled vehicles in France will be pulled by horses.
I might rent Paris for a few days, but buying France? I’d rather buy the Falkland Islands.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 03 at 06:45 PM • permalink
- #38, TRJ:
When as Bubba ever done anything that stands up to the light of reason?
He would, of course, want to buy China as a return for China having bought him his Presidency, but by then China might actually be worth some real money and france will always sell itself on the cheap.
Besides, the french hate the US. Bubba would be right at home.
I read about ten newspapers a day and three newsmagazines a week, and I have my TV tuned to cable news all day,
As opposed to, you know, getting out in the real world, cuz what the hell you gonna learn that way, right?
“As actors it’s our duty to read things in the newspaper and then say them like they’re our own ideas…” —Team America
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 11 03 at 09:24 PM • permalink
- kcom & richard mcenroe – I get the idea that the Left is a group who, while ranting about wanting change, doesn’t want to do what it takes to really change except for the ranting part. MoDo is a perfect example. She’s not stupid, she’s ignorant – and happily unaware that she’s ignorant, and so arrogant that she insists it ain’t so.
When I realized something in my life had to change a few years back, it didn’t come about until I expanded my world, got information from places I’d never used before, & DID something different. Change only comes when I WANT it, not when others think I need it.
I pity the poor wizened girl…to some extent, anyway. (‘there is none so blind as she who will not see’)
I read about ten newspapers a day and three newsmagazines a week, and I have my TV tuned to cable news all day,
What’s the point of that? They all print the same wire service copy and run the same columnists. Opinion pieces come as fill-in-the-blank kits from the DNC or other activist groups. (Editorals across the US are even more cookie-cutter than these blasted legal ads that run in every city. And, if you’re net literate, it’s all damn stale by the time it hits print! I gave up the fish-wrappers long ago.
Posted by nofixedabode on 2006 11 04 at 01:03 AM • permalink
What’s the point of that? They all print the same wire service copy and run the same columnists. Opinion pieces come as fill-in-the-blank kits from the DNC or other activist groups.
There is so much truth in that it’s scary. Every American has heard a news story or two featuring the claims of a group called “Committee for Science in the Public Interest”. Turns out it’s a small group of people with a PR newswire account; they push their idiotic claims onto the newswire accompanied by (friendly) contacts and sometimes even canned, fill-in-the-blank stories.
Result: coverage on local and national news.
All the outrage over the government doing the same thing was because groups like that didn’t want to surrender their exclusive turf.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 11 04 at 12:26 PM • permalink
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