Jon Stewart

I read in Salon and saw the headline on The New Republic that Jon Stewart went too easy on Senator Rick Santorum the other day on "The Daily Show." I didn't watch the show that night and I only read the Salon War Room bit on it. However, it strikes me that we are in desperate times if political commentators are berating a comedian for going too easy on a politician while interviewing him on a fake news show. On Comedy Central.

It is a sad day when we are looking to a comedian to do the hard work of explaining why certain views held by politicians, like Senator Santorum, are the antithesis of what it means to live in a democracy. I know that Jon Stewart reaches a wide audience, I know people prefer to listen to him present the news instead of the networks or the cable news channels. He tells it like it is. I know it must be disappointing to hear him go easy on someone that he can't possibly agree with, but he's not a reporter, he's not a news anchor, he's not a political pundit. Instead of criticizing him for the job he did, perhaps more journalists could do a better job of exposing/explaining the views held by Senator Santorum and his brethren and why some of those views are damaging to this country.