This is so surreal I’m not even sure Jon Stewart and his writers could have made it up. In June, we noted with admiration, sorrow, and irony the five-day package of Jason Jones of The Daily Show from Iran, filmed just before the Presidential election. In one of the episodes, he spoke to three individuals who would be arrested within days of the 12 June vote: Ebrahim Yazdi, who was briefly detained, former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was released on bail this weekend after more than five months in prison (although facing a six-year prison sentence), and Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was held for almost four months.
I saw the flicker of a laptop monitor under my blindfold. Then I heard someone speaking. It was a recording of another prisoner’s confession. “It’s not that one,” said the second interrogator. “It’s the one marked ‘Spy in coffee shop.’ ” Mr. Rosewater fumbled with the computer. The other man stepped in to change the DVD. And then I heard the voice of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Read the rest of this entry »
In June, just before the election, The Daily Show — the best satirical “news” programme on television — sent correspondent Jason Jones to Iran. The five reports that followed, airing the week after the Presidential vote and amidst the first mass demonstrations, were enlightening and poignant as well as humourous. Jones interviewed three people who would soon be in detention (two of them still are): former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Ebrahim Yazdi, and journalist Maziar Bahari. He met Iranians in the shopping malls, on the street, and in their homes, discovering that they were far from the enemies of “The Great Satan”. And he and his producer returned to the US studio with this remarkable discussion, now translated into Persian, with Jon Stewart.
(Ironically, because of copyright issues, the original English-language videos from The Daily Show cannot be viewed outside the US. So, after the Farsi version, we’ve posted the “behind the scenes” English-language video on the making of the programmes.)
Yesterday we mentioned the recent series of reports from Iran by Jason Jones of The Daily Show, highlighting his interviews with two former Vice Presidents and a journalist who are now detained. Today we feature Jones’ concluding report. Still with The Daily Show trademark of slightly crazed humour amd moving from football with children to Jones’ attempt at “Iranian hip hop”, it offers compassion and even hope amidst current events:
In case you missed it, over the last two weeks, The Daily Show broadcast a series of extraordinary “reports” from Jason Jones in Iran. Although Jones visited the country before the election crisis, his stay in Iran — in particular, his interviews with Iranians — were a wonderful mix of interchange, humour, and insight. And, as the current conflict escalated, the reports took on a special meaning and poignancy. In the segment below, Jones interviews three people — former Vice Presidents Ibrahim Yazdi and Mohammad Ali Abtahi and journalist Maziar Bahari — who have all been detained by the Iranian authorities.
When all else fails in the face of farce and farcical fear, turn to The Daily Show for the way forward on swine flu, “last on the list of things that can kill you in Mexico”. In the second video, John Oliver reports from the Centers for Disease Control (“there are only 40 confirmed cases in America, none of them fatal”) v. Jason Jones from the Centers for Stuff I Heard from Some Guy (“the entire state of Arizona is dead”):
This is so surreal I’m not even sure Jon Stewart and his writers could have made it up. In June, we noted with admiration, sorrow, and irony the five-day package of Jason Jones of The Daily Show from Iran, filmed just before the Presidential election. In one of the episodes, he spoke to three individuals who would be arrested within days of the 12 June vote: Ebrahim Yazdi, who was briefly detained, former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was released on bail this weekend after more than five months in prison (although facing a six-year prison sentence), and Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was held for almost four months.
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