Why I Watch the Daily Show

As the Daily Show started last night I was beginning to wonder why I still watch it. One answer is that I stay up late and there isn't anything better on at 1:00 am, but last night's show gave me another reason. The guest was Efraim Halevy, former head of Mossad who was pushing his new book The Man in the Shadows. Part way in, Jon Stewart asked his usual question, "How did the US intelligence get it so wrong in Iraq?"

Halevy's answer, "They got pretty much everything right."

Stewart, "But what about the WMDs?"

Halevy, "They exist."

Stewart, "But where?"

Halevy, "Possibly still in Iraq."

He went on to point out that US troops found functional MiG attack jets buried in the sand.

Stewart was clearly at a loss. He's used to friendly experts who only need a bit of prompting to tell him how incompetent Bush is. Instead he had the former head of an intelligence organization with a strong interest in Iraq's affairs telling him that Bush got it right. You never see that on Leno.

(note the transcript was from memory and I probably got some minor details wrong)

Of course, the other reason I watch the Daily Show is that it is on before the Colbert Report. Colbert is supposed to be a liberal playing an over-the-top conservative but sometimes you wonder. Liberal guests always get tougher treatment. At the very least, Colbert remembers that he is supposed to entertain first and preach to the choir second, something Jon Stewart forgot a long time ago.