PATHETIC – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Jon Stewart is retiring from the Daily Show.  That's a big story in media circles, but the implications are wider.

Stewart is a liberal.  Fine.  Most media types are.  But what we didn't know during this stewardship of the show, and what he never felt the need to tell us, is that he had a direct, active relationship with the administration.  From Newsbusters: 

Politico’s Darren Samuelsohn reports that throughout Obama’s presidency, liberal comedian Jon Stewart was “summoned” to the White House for “secret...visits” with the president, an example of how the administration took “unusual steps to cultivate Daily Show comic.”

In the piece, Samuelsohn tries to soften Stewart’s far-left politics as merely being “center-left” mixed with a “populist streak heavy on fiscal responsibility, good government and fighting for the little guy.”

The Politico reporter goes on to promote how Obama’s meetings with the liberal comedian “speaks volumes about Stewart and his reach, which goes well beyond the million or so viewers who tune into The Daily Show on most weeknights.”

Samuelsohn never questions the appropriateness of Obama’s private meetings with the liberal comedian especially when he is known for his unwillingness meet with members of his own party and the press, and instead uses the meetings as an opportunity to promote Stewart’s allegedly powerful influence in the policymaking process.

COMMENT:  It's not the first time a comedian has had a direct relationship with an administration.  Bob Hope had a close relationship with the Nixon administration and the Republican Party, but the relationship was open and reported. 

Stewart kept his relationship a secret, which was entirely inappropriate, and violated basic standards of broadcasting.  The relationship partly explains Stewart's usual adherence to Obama talking points.

Stewart is a talented guy, but one who never struck me as particularly intelligent, incisive or mature.  But he influenced the young generation without revealing his collaboration with a presidential administration.  For that he should be denounced, but won't be inside the media bubble.

July 29,  2015