Jon Stewart used the April 22 episode of “The Daily Show” to eviscerate the media for giving way too much attention to Donald Trump‘s ongoing hush money trial. The host said the legal battle is both “a test of the fairness of the American legal system” and “a test of the media’s ability to cover Donald Trump in a responsible way.” Stewart determined that the media is failing when it comes to the latter.
Throwing to footage from across cable news networks, including MSNBC host Chris Hayes proclaiming this is “the trial of the century” and various media outlets reporting on Trump’s trips to the courthouse in detail, Stewart fired back: “Perhaps, if we limit the coverage to the issues at hand, and try not to create an all-encompassing spectacle of the most banal of details, perhaps that would help?”
“Seriously, are we going to follow this guy to court every fucking day?” Stewart asked. “Are you trying to make this O.J. [Simpson]? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting.”
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Other media clips showed hosts obsessing over court sketches, to which Stewart said: “Why are you showing it to us? It’s a sketch. Why would anyone analyze a sketch? It’d be like looking atThe Last Supperand going, ‘Why do you think Jesus looks so sad here? What do you think, it’s ’cause of Judas? What if we interview one of the waiters at one of the tables from like a different section of the restaurant, who maybe didn’t actually see him, but we’ve got time to kill.’”
“What the fuck are we doing?” Stewart continued. “Look! At some point in this trial, something important and revelatory is going to happen. But none of us are going to notice because the hour spent on his speculative, facial tics. If the media tries to make us feel like the most mundane bullshit is Earth shattering, we won’t believe you when it’s really interesting. It’s your classic boy-who-cried-Wolf… Blitzer.”
“It’s the first day of the first of his 438 trials to come. Pace yourselves,” he added. “And if you’re bored, you can always start planning how you’re going to be covering his next trial and the sober mea culpas you’ll deliver during his next term as president.”
The Trump hush money trial in Manhattan is expected to continue over the next six weeks or so. The former president is defending himself against accusations that he covered up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in order to keep her quiet about an alleged affair. Trump denies the claim.
Watch Stewart’s full takedown of the media’s coverage of Trump’s hush money trial in the video below.
