Jon Stewart led Monday’s episode of The Daily Show with Donald Trump’s hush money trial and dinged news networks for how they cover it.
“This trial will obviously be a test of the fairness of the American legal system, but it’s also a test of the media’s ability to cover Donald Trump in a responsible way. A task they have acknowledged they’ve performed poorly in the past,” Stewart said before a supercut of the media claiming they had learned their lesson on how to cover Trump.
The supercut included clips from all major cable news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Stewart mocked the network’s personalities, adding, “I think from this trial we will see the seeds of that introspection bear fruit, or we will learn that learning curves are for pussies.”
Another supercut of the major news networks was introduced, with many claiming that Trump’s trial was “the trial of the century.”
“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,” Stewart added.
Stewart introduced a supercut of the media’s coverage of Trump arriving at the courthouse and having cameras follow his motorcade as he made his way through NYC traffic.
“Seriously, are we going to follow this guy to court every f***ing day? Are you trying to make this OJ? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting,” Stewart said.
Stewart then made fun of a moment on CNN where Jake Tapper interrupted one of his commentators to inform viewers that a new photo of Trump inside the courtroom was on screen. In another moment, Tapper showed one of the courtroom sketches and tried to figure out what was happening.
“Why are you showing it to us? It’s a sketch,” Stewart said. “Why would anyone analyze a sketch? It’d be like looking at The Last Supper and going, ‘Why do you think Jesus looks so sad here?’”
CNN would later have the sketch artist and host Erin Burnett asked her if Trump was sleeping in one of the sketches.
“My apologies. I was sitting 50 feet away. I was having such a struggle to try and get those eyeballs in,” the sketch artist said.
Stewart reflected that “at some point in this trial, something important and revelatory is going to happen but none of us are going to notice because the hours spent on his speculative facial ticks. If the media tries to make us feel like the most mundane bullsh** is Earth-shattering, we won’t believe you when it’s really interesting.”
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