Tom Tapp, Deadline
“I would think it’s an embarrassment to those news organizations,” said Jon Stewart today at the top of his The Weekly Show podcast.
Specifically, he was speaking about NBC and CNN which, he said, “refuse to allow their reporters to come on a podcast (his) to talk about the issues of the day.”
Stewart went on to detail the difficulty the show was having booking pundits from those two networks, saying, “it’s unlike anything I’ve really ever seen.”
Specifically, the once-a-week Daily Show host says that the reporters themselves want to come on the podcast but, when Stewart’s staff have made official requests, the networks “politely decline” without explanation.
“Let that sink in for just a a moment,” he continued, punctuating the irony. “Organizations that rely on access and transparency refuse to allow their reporters to come on podcast to talk about the issues of the day. How is it possible that a news organization would not feel shame and bewilderment at using the techniques of obfuscation that they rail against from politicians and public figures?”
Stewart’s co-host Lauren Walker then attempted to answer his question.
“Maybe they don’t want their [pundits’] ideas anywhere else or maybe you appear partisan and they want to avoid that?” she asked.
“This is NBC. I mean they have MSNBC,” he replied. “We had the same problem with CNN. They gave us a bunch of sh*t for trying to bring somebody on. Like, it’s it’s bonkers and it it makes no sense.”
It’s not the first time Stewart has put a media entity on blast for blocking access to interviewees.
On The Daily Show this past April, Stewart related a tussle he had with Apple in connection with his former Apple TV+ comedy show The Problem With Jon Stewart.
“I wanted to have you on a podcast and Apple asked us not to do it,” the Daily Show host said to his guest, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, referencing the podcast that was an extension of the Apple+ show, which the tech giant canceled in October.
The FTC chair has been outspoken about her concerns over what she sees are monopolistic practices by tech giants like Apple which, she told Stewart that night, have stifled consumer choice.
“They literally said, ‘Please don’t talk to her,’ ” Stewart told Khan.
