After watching the segment of "Crossfire" again, it was apparent that the two men from the show were not expecting Jon Stewart to be as serious or present such stringent questions about the true purpose of their show. He came prepared to tell them what he honestly thought about the show and what could be done to improve it. The men were caught off guard by his hard hitting questions which caused them to become defensive. This caused the segment to turn into a sort of "my show is better than your show" fight. Stewart seemed to maintain his composure while the Crossfire men became upset which he pointed out to them was a flaw of the show.
Jon Stewart repeatedly states that if the show were actually what it was portrayed as, it would be a very good show. Stewart, being the comedian that he is, tries to ask the Crossfire men why they always have to fight. This being the concept of the show is obviously is non-negotiable. After they were hit with such serious questions the men proceeded to attempt to turn the questions around on Stewart. They tried to make it seem like their shows were more similar than they were. The Daily Show, although of political and news nature, is a comedy based program that really is not meant to be a debate show. Crossfire, however, is described as a show where two sides of an argument can be argued evenly without bias and is shown on a more serious network with more serious topics.
The Crossfire men did not seem to grasp the fact that their show was supposed to be "real news" while The Daily Show was comedy. Jon Stewart frequently reminded the men of the fact that his show was not meant to be anything but comedy. Despite his explanation of the show, the Crossfire men continued to criticize him for not asking tough enough questions whenever he has a politician or someone from the news on his show.
Stewart gives some very tough questions and statements to the men throughout this segment. He says "Crossfire does not uphold their responsibilities," by holding debates that are even for both sides and that Crossfire "fails as real news." Jon Stewart seems very genuine in saying that America needs a show like Crossfire because the media forces politicians to say what they think the people want to hear. If Crossfire had actually done what they said they were intended to do, it could be a place for even debate over important topics where people could give their real opinions on issues rather than what the media wanted to hear.
After watching this segment and using "The Method" and "Notice and Focus" to analyze it, it is easy to pick out the important points of both arguments to see what the overall purpose of the debate is. It is important to use these tools to analyze any piece that must be broken down. It helps bring out the high points and show the most important things that are the main topics. These tools can be used to effectively analyze anything.
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