Update--Leitch responds: Via a comment he posted on this item's thread, Leitch has responded: "It was probably a pretty dumb thing to say. Mea culpa. (For the record: I like the Pope a lot more than I like Jon Stewart.)"
-----------------------------------------------
I hadn't before seen Will Leitch, the Deadspin creator who now writes on politics for Bloomberg, in action. But on today's With All Due Respect, I found him funny and affable.
Even so, he made one left-leaning assertion so absurd it was too much even for show host John Heilemann. Running parallel with the NCAA tourney, Bloomberg has been playing off a bracket of 64 non-presidential candidates. In the Final Four, Jon Stewart defeated the Pope and Tina Fey took out Warren Buffett. Asked to explain the results, Leitch alleged that Fey and Stewart have a "universality that maybe not everybody has, frankly including the Pope."
More universal than the Pope, really? Among those three, who do you think has the greatest name recognition and respect around the world? I'm taking the Pope in a landslide.
As suggested, Heilemann was shocked: "I never want to call you the ugly American, Will, but I have to say, the notion that somehow Jon Stewart is more universal than the Pope, I think is pretty funny."
WILL LEITCH: As if Trevor Noah's job isn't tough enough already, he has to take over for the guy who beat the Pope! That's kind of a nice touch. I think it makes a lot of sense. The thing about Tina Fey and Jon Stuart is not only are they funny, and they are both very funny, they also both stand for a little bit more than that. Tina Fey is seen as kind of a female icon in a lot of ways. And Jon Stewart has become this kind of liberal lion. And so, people attach things to them more than just their comedy. And so the fact they're also funny, it gives them a universality that maybe not everybody has, frankly Including the Pope. There's really a lot of ways, it helps them not be that polarizing because even if you don't like them or you don't agree with their politics, you can't deny that they're not [sic] funny.John: I love the--I never want to call you the ugly American, Will, but I have to say, the notion that somehow Jon Stewart is more universal than the Pope I think is pretty funny.
