Comedian Jon Stewart was recently interviewed by his long-time pal (and former employee) Mo Rocca on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” to talk about his new film “Rosewater”, which Stewart directed and wrote.
“Rosewater” is one Newsweek journalist’s perspective on being abducted in Iran. When Rocca informed Stewart that his old “nemesis” George W. Bush would later be interviewed on the same episode of “Sunday Morning”, Stewart, for whatever reason, decided to compare the retirement of Bush to Jimmy Carter:
"Jimmy Carter's, like, 108, he's out in Africa, like, pulling Guinea worms out of children's feet trying to cure them. Bush is at home, 'Ah, bring me my fruit bowl, I'm doin' a still life. Heh heh heh.'"
Not sure why Stewart felt compelled to compare Bush to Carter - besides, he could have compared Bush to another former democratic president – Bill Clinton. Clinton is much more popular than Carter – then again, Stewart would have needed to mention that Clinton’s “retirement” has consisted of making $104.9 million in speaking fees since 2001 (to his credit, Bush made $15 million from 2009-2011, but tracking nowhere near Clinton’s level) and doing a “bang-up job” campaigning and supporting several democratic candidates for last week’s midterm elections. Actually, after last week’s stomping, Stewart probably made the right decision in choosing Carter.
However, if Stewart wanted to give an accurate comparison of Bush to Carter, he should’ve done his research. Here’s what Bush has done since leaving office (besides painting and the occasional speaking engagement) as noted in “The Federalist”:
“After he left office, Bush set up a foundation that works on economic growth, education reform, global health, human freedom, military service and women’s initiatives. You’re not going to see a ton of media coverage of these things, our media being what they are, but if you dig around you can find updates. There’s a list here. Such as that the Bushes “spent a week in Zambia and Botswana recently to promote the initiative and help renovate a health clinic in Kabwe, a city about two hours outside the Zambian capital of Lusaka” as part of the George W. Bush Institute’s cancer-fighting initiative, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon. From the Dallas Morning News, we read, “Nationwide in Zambia, more than 22,000 women across Zambia have been screened, Bush said. Nearly 40% were HIV-positive about a third tested positive for pre-cancerous or cancerous cervical cells.”
Now, here’s what Carter has done (in addition to pulling guinea worms from the feet of children):
“Carter received praise for his well-publicized work with Habitat for Humanity (at least until he took his work to Communist Nicaragua and posed with Sandinista dictator Daniel Ortega). Then he started a political activism center called The Carter Center, which gives him a role to play in international affairs. That is where things have not gone so well. His admiring biographer Douglas Brinkley wrote about how during the Kuwaiti invasion, Carter wrote a letter to the heads of state on the U.N. Security Council that:
urged these influential world leaders to abandon U.S. leadership and instead give “unequivocal support to an Arab League effort, without any restraints on their agenda.” If this were allowed to occur, Carter believed, an Arab solution would not only force Iraq to leave Kuwait but at long last also force Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
Only Cuba and Yemen agreed with him. The NSA head said Carter’s behavior was a violation of the Logan Act prohibiting diplomacy by private citizens. He kept up his lobbying with foreign nations, asking them to cut ties with the U.S. It’s perhaps not as surprising as it should be to read that former presidential staff have called him treasonous.”
Steven F. Hayward of The Weekly Standard notes “the way he has meddled ruinously in the foreign affairs of the nation, especially North Korea.” People may not remember how Carter’s visits there helped legitimize the barbaric regime and created conditions under which North Korea was able to perpetuate a clandestine nuclear weapons program all while claiming to have ceased it. For years, the U.S. and allies provided oil and benefits to North Korea under the false idea that the dictatorship had ceased its program. When the ruse was up, Jimmy Carter wrote a letter lambasting these countries instead of North Korea. Full details here. In later years he’s turned to criticisms of Catholics and Jews, as cranks do. But that’s for a separate discussion.”
Stewart should know that when it comes to news, information shouldn't be cherry-picked. Any good journalist knows this – but that’s the difference. Stewart isn't a journalist. He's a comedian playing a fake news anchor on a comedy show.
