Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Jon Stewart’s record of apologies:
Jon Stewart refuses to apologize to Christians for his “vagina manger” stunt of April 16, but that’s not because he is averse to granting apologies.
On April 30, 2009, he apologized for branding President Harry Truman a “war criminal.” He said that characterization was “dumb” and “stupid.”
Stewart issued two apologies in June 2011. The first one involved his close relationship with the disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner. On June 7, he apologized at a press conference for badly handling his commentary on the Weiner scandal. The Baltimore Sun reported that he “looked kind of confused and pathetic at times, particularly in his wrongheaded criticism of the media.”
On June 21, Stewart apologized for smearing Fox News viewers. He had called them “the most consistently misinformed media viewers,” but was taken to task by PolitiFact for doing so. What was striking about the Fox News incident was Stewart’s statement that the apology was necessary because he did not want to “undermine the very integrity and credibility that I work so hard to pretend to care about.”
None of the offenses that Stewart has apologized for even approach the serious nature of his vile April 16 episode. Yet he refuses to apologize to the 80 percent of the nation that is Christian. As a result, he has seriously undermined his integrity. Indeed, it is shot.
Contact Comedy Central Communications head Steve Albani: steve.albani@cc.com
