Jon Stewart returned to host a special edition of The Daily Show on Thursday, following the suspension of fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel by ABC. The episode, branded as the “all new government approved Daily Show,” featured a studio adorned with gold trim, a nod to President Donald Trump’s redecorating of the Oval Office.
Stewart, at times channelling North Korean news anchor Ri Chun-hee, promised a “fun, hilarious and administration-compliant show.” He addressed Kimmel’s suspension by airing a clip of ITV journalist Robert Peston asking Trump whether free speech was more under threat in the UK or the US. Stewart also played a two-month-old social media post from Trump threatening that Kimmel’s show would be “next” to be axed.
The FCC chair Brendan Carr, appointed by Trump, has faced scrutiny after comments interpreted as leading to Kimmel’s suspension. In a rightwing podcast on Wednesday, Carr threatened ABC affiliates’ broadcast licenses if action was not taken against Kimmel. In a subsequent CNBC interview, Carr stated his goal was to ensure broadcasters were “serving the public interest,” adding that “we’re not done yet with seeing the consequences of this shift.”
Journalist Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, joined Stewart on the show to discuss the collapse of US institutions and free speech under the Trump administration. She cited a Swedish study indicating that 72% of the world is now under authoritarian rule, and warned that “if you don’t move and protest the rights you have, you lose them.” Ressa drew parallels between Trump’s policies and former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal crackdown on drugs, blaming Silicon Valley for creating an information environment plagued by misinformation.
