[pengaru]

The main value JRE has is in its guests.

The host is a broken record increasingly with an agenda who flies an "I'm a moron" disclaimer in the same breath as speaking authoritatively on whatever controversial fire he wishes to give more oxygen to.

At least nowadays most the interesting guests go on other podcasts when they're making the rounds, so JRE's unique value has greatly diminished.

[paulcole]

> The host is a broken record increasingly with an agenda who flies an "I'm a moron" disclaimer

This is the same trick Jon Stewart used on The Daily Show to great effect. “I’m just a comedian” indeed. People just happened to like his takes.

[tinco]

There's a big difference between "I'm a comedian, I'm just poking fun at the truth" and "I'm a moron, I can't reliably interpret truth from fiction".

[paulcole]

Not sure why you care what I say, I’m just an HN commenter!

[tinco]

I trust you so much more than I would ever trust Bill O'Reilly.

[Spivak]

I think I half agree with you. A lot of Jon's segments were just straight up mean -- well beyond playful mockery which made him hard to watch sometimes and he got away with it because of the comedian label. Where I disagree is that he was always open about his politics and knew that his show was "serious takes with light hearted delivery" and made it a point to not talk about topics from a position of ignorance. When you hear him talk off-camera it's clear that he really cares about getting it right and saying something intelligible through the jokes.

When I listen to Joe it's different, I'm not saying he couldn't run with the bit of "I don't know nuthin' about nuthin'" and come from a place of empathy and curiosity which would be cool. But what it is in practice is "I'm a moron and you shouldn't listen to what I think I don't know what I'm talking about buttttt and then speaks authoritatively on some politically charged topic he's supposedly ignorant of."

[pengaru]

Jon Stewart also is arguably the spiritual originator of assaulting the "Fake News" media, though I don't think he ever used those specific words.

[farmerstan]

Jon Stewart is responsible for an entire generation of millenials thinking that pointing out political hypocrisy was enough.

[pengaru]

Is that right? My peers were largely rabid fans of his daily show, but that's gen X. I thought millenials were a bit young for that.

[cardosof]

It works because it's true. The joke's on the audience that takes seriously what someone with a comedian background says after "I'm a comedian, but..."

[brunellus]

Totally. The irony of this is lost on so many.