Jon Stewart Calls Out the Media for Refusing His Interview Requests to Discuss ‘Exploitative’ Industry Practices
Jon Stewart called out the media’s exploitative practices, along with their refusal to appear on his new Apple TV+ show The Problem with Jon Stewart.
Appearing on The Howard Stern Show Tuesday morning, the comic discussed the difficulty he’s had getting representatives from any media outlet to visit his show.
“We tried very hard to get a person who runs a news division now to come on the show, to speak publicly. They all turned us down,” Stewart said. “These are people who run news organizations. People that their business model relies on access and transparency.”
Howard Stern praised Stewart’s recent interview with former Disney CEO Bob Iger, in which the media was the topic.
“That’s why I liked your show, it is kind of cool. It does get you thinking that not one television news guy would come on and defend the product of television news. They don’t want you asking the essential questions”, Stern said. “How much of these stories are really generated because you have to please the audience as opposed to that you really care about these things. It’s the one industry that should’ve said ‘we will answer any of your questions, any time.'”
Stewart then said, “it’s all about transparency and the powerful must be held accountable. When you ask them to defend their product and their business model and we even did zoom calls with a couple of them. To explain what we were trying to do and what we wanted to talk about they would all say, ‘let me run it up the chain.’ I’m not sure where that chain ends but I’m sure it’s up somebody’s ass. None of them would appear!”
“It’s fucking crazy. It’s crazy that someone who runs a news organization that goes to people houses when their kid has died. To knock on the door and go ‘Hey, how’s that feel! Come out and talk to us!’ They make it so that you owe them access and yet when you want to put them on camera to talk about the business model that you think is exploitative,” Stewart said. “If you work in an industry where the reason for being is to find out the truth and illuminate the dark corners and to expose corruption and yet you yourself will not come on and allow that same scrutiny to be applied to you. Fucking incredible.”
