The Mackerel Wrapper

A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Maziar Bahari imprisoned for Daily Show skit

Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek correspondent, was recently released from more than 100 days' imprisonment in Iran. One of the allegations against him was that a Daily Show skit in which he was featured constituted prima facie evidence he was spying. So, of course, he appeared this week with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.

Here's what the blurb says: "Maziar Bahari sees the humor and stupidity in his interrogation and imprisonment in an Iranian prison."

Here's what I saw: The blurb is accurate, but he and Stewart also got into one of the most insightful discussions of the mindset of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that I've seen in quite a while, certainly better than anything I've seen on TV. It even made a point Bahari didn't get into in his Newsweek cover story: Many of the hardliners in Iran were imprisoned under the Shah, and they are quite sophisticated in the application of pressure against prisoners.

It's worth watching. Funny, too, in sort of a low-key way.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Maziar Bahari
www.thedailyshow.com
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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.