I bet you didn’t see this coming: both Jon Stewart and the New York Times have come out in support of John Kerry for President!

I appreciate this disclaimer from the CBS story: “The Daily Show” airs on Comedy Central. [Comedy Central and CBS are both owned by Viacom.]. And since the CBS affiliate in Memphis is owned by the New York Times it all comes together nicely.

These endorsements explain why, for example, Jon Stewart settled for this response when he asked Kerry about his Christmas in Cambodia lie.

It also explains why the New York Times is running propaganda written by Ron Suskind. This time, Suskind begins with another disaffected rightwinger, in an attempt to equate George W. Bush’s faith with that of Osama Bin Laden.

As one of the few people who actually read (and deconstructed) Suskind’s Paul O’Neill book, I suppose I should respond. For now, I’d simply like to make note of the main source for Suskind’s allegations:

A precious glimpse of Bush, just as he was ascending to the presidency, comes from Jim Wallis, a man with the added advantage of having deep acuity about the struggles between fact and faith. Wallis, an evangelical pastor who for 30 years has run the Sojourners — a progressive organization of advocates for social justice…

It’s fine for Suskind and the New York Times to rely on Jim Wallis, but next time they should just skip the middle man and attribute everything to the enduring legacy of the grandfather of progressives, Nikita Khrushchev.

As for the New York Times endorsement… in an article running 1,694 words, only 392 of them reference Mr. Kerry’s qualifications (and that’s counting generously); the remaining 1,302 words are used to criticize President Bush.