Jon Stewart delivers incredible takedown of media coverage of Baltimore riots

Challenging the idea that the rioting was 'unbelievable', the Daily Show host took the reporting to task

Helen Nianias
Thursday 30 April 2015 11:28 BST
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Some people described the scenes of incredible violence in Baltimore as "unbelievable", but Jon Stewart begged to differ.

This week the city of Baltimore, Maryland, erupted in violence after young black man Freddie Gray died in police custody.

Stewart argued that the violence fitted into the narrative of news over the last few months in the US.

"Elvis leading a herd of Orthodox Jewish unicorns through a city street, that would be hard to believe," Stewart said. "Ferguson was just a few months ago, and you were talking about it."

He sarcastically suggested that one viable way of dealing with the violence was to ignore the roots of the problem.

"Maybe a more nuanced alert system could allow for a more productive intervention beyond: 'You have 10 seconds to disperse,'" Stewart said.

"Or we can agree to keep ignoring the roots of how systemically, historically disenfranchised many African-American communities still are - only paying attention to them when we fear their periodic, fiery ball of anger threatens to enter our airspace like some kind of Alex Haley's comet and, once again, breathing a blissful sigh of forgetful relief when it's another near-miss."

Talking in this week's issue of Shortlist magazine, Stewart expanded on his place within the media. He said: "Some people just want to sell papers, and some people want to tell stories with integrity... That tension is the battle."

He added that he's looking forward to leaving The Daily Show after 15 years at the helm. "More time with my family will be tremendous," he said.

"I can't wait for them to hate me more - I only seem so nice in small doses. When I'm having dinner with them I stay in my suit and behind the desk. We'll have an appetiser then I'll throw to commercial."

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