JON STEWART BUSTS MEDIA’S ‘JAIL-GASM’ OVER MUELLER, PERVERSE INCENTIVES:

As NewsBusters previously reported, comedian Jon Stewart dedicated an entire episode of his Apple TV show, The Problem With Jon Stewart to how the media overplayed their hand with the Mueller report and filled their coverage with “bulls***,” and effectively turned it into a “noose-tightened, closed-walled, family-style jail-gasm.” But there was more to the show as he brought on media insiders to discuss the problem and surprisingly sat down with former Disney CEO and ABC News boss, Bob Iger.

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And that’s where the interview with Iger immediately picked up. “Do you have an idea of why they might be so reluctant to speak publicly,” Stewart wondered. Iger chalked it up to news organizations “being criticized in a way that they’ve never experienced before” and they’ve formed “a bit of a bunker mentality[.]”

Things got a bit tense when Stewarts was pressing Iger on how ratings drive what’s being shown to viewers and Iger was very defensive:

IGER: If you’re asking whether there have been incidents when news organizations fail to carry things because they don’t think they’ll be of interest to their audience. I’m sure that’s the case.

STEWART: I’m not saying instances. I’m saying that’s been shaping –

IGER: You think it’s a regular thing.

STEWART: And not told in the right way.

IGER: Not being — see that’s, that’s I would, I would argue that there are stories that are not told because there’s a belief that people aren’t interested them. I don’t think there are stories that are told that are told inaccurately just to make them more interesting to people—

STEWART: It’s not inaccurate.

IGER – I’m defending an organization as opposed to news in general. I just don’t have enough—

STEWART: But trust in news during the Cronkite era was it was one of the most valued institutions. Today, it’s somewhere between Congress and herpes.

The Cronkite era, you say? Walter Cronkite: Liberalism in the Guise of Objectivity.