Stewart, ‘Crossfire’

Re “On the Other Side of the Desk, Stewart Puts the Jokes Aside,” by Lynn Smith, Oct. 18: You have an astoundingly inaccurate quote from Tucker Carlson: “But saying, [attributes this quote to Stewart] ‘The people are sick of politics. The people want answers, solutions, not debate’ was banal. It was trite. I thought of him as this original thinker. This was boring. Commonplace.”

Hmmmm. Now let’s see what Jon Stewart said, per the CNN transcript: “But the thing is that this -- you’re doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great.”

As usual, Carlson’s bias (and apparent hurt feelings, in this case) gets in the way of the truth -- not unlike so many others in the so-called news media. With that statement, he proved Stewart’s point. So did The Times, for not revealing the Stewart quote that I just mentioned.

Peggy Albrecht

Westlake Village

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Your article portrays Jon Stewart as dropping his comic persona to attack the talking heads of “Crossfire” on serious topics. But after you introduce the hosts as Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, the piece becomes interplay between only Stewart and Carlson. The conservative Carlson’s name is mentioned 12 times and the liberal Begala is never spoken of again. You give the impression that Begala was on a 42-minute break. For 12 columns it appears that Carlson alone is the target of Stewart’s ire. If you watched the show without the oft-denied Times liberal bias, it was plain that Stewart’s arguments were directed at both their houses, not just the right-wing side.

Randall Ruddy

Chino