On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart lodged a pithily accurate critique of CNN’s tactless and misinformed reporting on the dubious arrest of a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Amid clips of CNN’s rambling, self-contradicting shambles of reportage, Stewart quipped, “It’s like a news story as imagined by M. Night Shyamalan,”adding that what was “exclusive” about the report is that “it was completely fucking wrong.” Stewart topped off his critique with the following astute insight: ”We’re accustomed to 24-hour news networks thriving on conflict. Generally, though, that conflict is between two outside parties — political opponents, pundits — but CNN’s reporters have discovered that they can remove the middle man and spend hours of programming fighting amongst themselves. They have figured out a way to shit in their own mouths. CNN has become the Human Centipede of News.” Stewart’s superb takedown of CNN impelled us to revisit the best of the political satirist’s verbal crusades against the mainstream media.  … Read More