Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart got the official word in the origins of the swine-flu outbreak from John Oliver, reporting from the Centers For Disease Control, and Jason Jones, reporting from the Centers For Stuff I Heard From Some Guy:
Stewart: What have you been hearing at your center?
Jones: All kinds of things. OK, A: This disease was engineered by the government as an excuse to declare martial law, so that B: They can liquidate private health-insurance coverage.
Stewart: Yeah, that sounds a little farfetched there, Jason.
Jones: Well, then why is the government hoarding all the Tamiflu for themselves, their families, and disgraced Wall Street tycoons?
Stewart: Where did you hear that?
Jones: [pause] ... Some guy.
Stewart: Do you have a second source?
Jones: What, you mean another guy?
Oliver: Jon, Jon, Jon! You know this is preposterous. This is a naturally occurring mutation that has so far traveled a pathogenic route --
Jones: Can it, Science Boy! While you babble, Americans are being infected by the millions!
Oliver: Not true --
Jones: The entire state of Arizona is dead!
The problem that Daily Show writers must face each day is that their routines often mimic the real behavior of the wingnuts on the right.
