The Screen Life

As you probably know, up until this summer I had lived in St. Louis for 6 years. I worked a just little south of Ferguson. In fact, my office was ON Ferguson Ave.

And of course, the protests and riots and violence spread beyond just that one little suburb. There were incidents at the mall I used to go to all the time. There was even a shooting in my old neighborhood, a couple blocks from my house. It was probably “officially” unrelated, but I guarantee that the high tension that had permeated the area in the 2 weeks following the killing of Michael Brown helped to make every bad situation just that much worse.

It’s been surreal, seeing the places I just left covered non-stop by social media and the 24-hr news cycle. I know it’s even crazier for all my friends that still live there. I’m three states away, and I still felt the fear and tension. I feared for my friends and family just trying to travel to and from work.

Anybody who knows me, knows my politics and values. I even let it slip from time to time in this blog. So you probably has a pretty good idea where I stand. I won’t add any more commentary or analysis, because there’s absolutely nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said.

But you know who can say it for me? Jon Stewart.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to watch The Daily Show regularly, but apparently he had been away on vacation – probably airing reruns – during the worst of the situation. Upon returning, he offered this particularly enraged segment, in which he gave his usual hilarious and biting commentary. He directed his rage specifically at Fox New’s (unsurprisingly, yet still offensively) skewed coverage of this situation.

Note how fast he is talking in this segment. He is doing everything he can to get out as much information as possible in this 9-minute segment.