Sheldon Richman on Jon Stewart’s Sterile Satire

Political satire has a long and honorable
history: Aristophanes, William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift; W.S.
Gilbert; George Orwell; Lenny Bruce; Dick Gregory; Tom Lehrer,
 David Frost, and That Was the Week That Was;
George Carlin; Spitting Image, Yes,
Minister; the Smothers Brothers; the early Saturday
Night Live, Dave Barry, The
Onion, South Park, Family
Guy, and so many more. And then, writes Sheldon Richman,
there’s Jon Stewart, who is probably regarded as America’s premier
political satirist but felt it necessary to recant after
making a weak joke about not voting, an indication, perhaps, that
Americans just don’t get satire.

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