Brian Miller: The Daily Show Interviews Tea Party Members – What You Won't See on the Broadcast

Written by Administrator Thursday, 24 September 2009 20:37

Jon.Stewart As we all know, the Tea Party movement is gaining more and more traction in the “Fringe Media” with formerly popular networks like CNN, ABC, NBC etc. airing more and more about our movement.

This is both a blessing and a curse. As with anything consumed by today’s modern media machine, what is ultimately churned out is a combination of both good and bad press. That being said, when I was contacted by a producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I knew going in, this was most likely not going to be good.

For those of you not familiar with the format, this is a “News Show Parody”, inspired by the model made famous by the original cast of the Saturday Night Live in the 70’s and HBO’s Not Necessarily the News in the 80’s. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has updated the format with a 24 hour news cycle look gaining massive ratings and inspiring a number of copy cat shows. Putting aside his often left leaning views of the issues, Stewart’s intellect and humor deserves a tip of the hat.

The “angle” for the peace I was called about was to take place at the site of the G20 Summit, where protestors for years have been unfairly covered. “The Tea Party Movement has managed to get good press coverage in 6 months that the G20 protestors have done in 10 years” the producer explained. “We are looking for Tea Party Organizers to give some tips to the G20 protestors on how to have a better presence in the media, and how they can improve their image”. As one who is quite comfortable with laughing at myself, I found the whole bit very interesting and potentially hilarious. However, I put the breaks on the whole thing when the producer wanted me to dress up in wild and crazy attire. I told him that I came to the Akron Tea Party dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, like over 7000 like minded people did. Sure their where a few that had a little more fun with the event, but that did not represent the movement as a whole. I continued by telling him, if he wanted a real person, I would be happy to be part of the interview. Four hours later he called back, and took me up on my offer.

I knew well going into this interview that I was one of three people selected, and had no idea of what the other to members would be like. I also knew going in, that the odds of a favorable and serious interview was about as good as Al Gore speaking at the next Republican National Convention, but I was compelled to go there as myself. We have all watched this type of “Gotcha Humor” and more often then not, look at the person being picked on as well a bit slow. Then there is that rare person you look at and say, “hay wait a second, that’s not so nice… he’s like me!” I came to the interview hoping to attract those members of the audience. If the segment airs and I can reach ten people not exposed to conservative media and inspire them to get involved, all of the arrow I’ll take being on the show is worth it.

We were grilled on camera for over 3 hours Daily Show cast member John Oliver poked and prodded repeatedly to capture on film as much rope to hang us by our comments as humanly possible. The first hour consisted of “Soft Ball” questions intended to earn our trust. By the third hour, the outlandish photos, comments and questions took over. In the end what will be churned out will be a 2 to 5 minute peace with the worst sound bites they can find mixed in with G20 protest footage and Jon Stewart’s commentary. Our interviewer John Oliver’s trademark is ability to make people, like Tea Party attendees look completely foolish with his thick British accent will aid Stewart with his own style of uncomfortable humor to create a peace that should be quite funny. This is after all their job, but what won’t you see?

Comedian John Oliver

You won’t see the producer whom I spoke with after the shoot. He commented on how awful it is to have your image taken apart, as he had just had this done to him while attending a friend’s wedding. Here is a guy who has worked his way up to his position, had great pride in his work, in his country and actually believes in our movement. This is the kind of person you would see at a 9/12 meeting. However, like any professional, when the camera is rolling, he has a job to do, and does it well.

John Oliver and I talked at length about his three years here in the United States. The conversation shifted to how he was literally uninsurable for most his first year here in America because of switching between unions. He looked at me with horror as he said, “I was so afraid to get sick. I would have had to go back to England for treatment; the thought of it scared me to death”. When I suggested the idea of portable insurance, as been suggested by a number of conservative he completely agreed. He went on to let me know how crazy he thought our government was for “stacking the system in such an illogical manor”.

The bottom line here is show biz is show biz, and I found it to be an honor to be roasted by people that do get it. People, who understand what our movement is all about, and are silently rooting for us. The segment is slated to air on Thursday October 1^st, so DVR it and laugh along with me. But do so knowing that the real joke is on the public, we know the truth.