Just two weeks after the broadcast networks mourned “cultural icon” Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show, Friday’s NBC Today and CBS This Morning touted an online petition on the liberal Change.org website urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to select the left-wing comedian as a 2016 debate moderator.
On Today, co-host Matt Lauer wondered: “Could the presidential race be in Jon Stewart's future?” Fill-in weatherperson Dylan Dryer followed: “Well, that’s the hope of a lot of people....A Change.org petition requesting Stewart moderate one of the 2016 presidential debates has been signed almost 140,000 times and that number is growing by the second.”
Dryer promoted the argument from Stewart’s fans:
The petition reads, “Over the last 16 years Jon Stewart has played an influential and iconic role in covering US politics and media.” As further support, the petition claims that Jon Stewart's past interviews have included 15 heads of state, 22 cabinet members, 32 senators, and 7 representatives.
Wrapping up the minute-and-a-half-long segment, Dryer noted that “a mix of news journalists” moderated the debates in the 2012 presidential campaign, “None of whom take the satirical reporting approach that Jon Stewart is known for.”
On August 3, the hosts of Today lamented that the “saddest thing” about Stewart stepping down as Daily Show host was that he would not be around to attack Republicans after the first GOP debate.
On This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose offered a news brief on the topic:
Time reports on a growing effort to let Jon Stewart host a presidential debate. His fans launched a petition shortly after Stewart left The Daily Show. They want the Commission on Presidential Debates to consider letting Stewart moderate a debate. The petition has more than 140,000 signatures.
The media infatuation with Stewart has gotten to a point where journalists have become eager to abdicate their role in presidential politics to a comedian.
