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Tuesday, Jan 11, 2011 12:12 PM UTC

Jon Stewart on shooting: No idea how to process this

"It would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn't resemble the way we talk to each other on TV"

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Topics: Gabrielle Giffords, Jared Loughner, The Daily Show,

Jon Stewart on shooting: No idea how to process this

Jon Stewart offered a sober response — and a shade of comic relief — to the shooting in Arizona last night on The Daily Show. Sparse with jokes and characteristically comforting, Stewart’s monologue focused first the senselessness of the attack in Arizona:

How do you make sense of these types of senseless situations?

Boy would it be nice to draw a straight line of causation from this horror to something tangible, because then we could convince ourselves that if we just stopped this, the horrors would end.

And then on corraling political commentary into an area that recognizes the consequences of violent rhetoric:

If there is real solace in this I think it’s that for all the hyperbole and vitriol that’s become a part of our political process — when the reality of that rhetoric, when actions match the disturbing nature of words, we haven’t lost our capacity to be horrified. And please, let us hope we never do. Let us hope we never become numb to what real horror, what the real blood patriots looks like when it’s spilled. Maybe it helps us to remember to match our rhetoric with reality more often.

 Watch the full clip here:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Arizona Shootings Reaction
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

 

Adam Clark Estes blogs the news for Salon. Email him at ace@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @adamclarkestes More Adam Clark Estes.

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