Sabih Oved as an allegory

If you walk East on the Kazenelson street in Givataim and then turn right to the Sirkin street, you will see a short line of 5-10 people, sometimes more. It doesn't really matter what time of the day you will visit the place, there always will be people. They are standing in line to get sabih from the famous Sabih Oved (the link is to a funny commercial). Although sabih is a relatively simple dish, Oved literally managed to bring it to a level of art, justifying his self-proclamation as "the best sabih in the universe". The secret seems to be simple as well – Oved concentrates on a single product, but he is doing it the best.

However, Jon Stewart from the "Daily Show" thinks that he can do everything and still remain the best. As hilarious as he can be talking about politics and sometimes celebrities, he failed completely trying to talk about technology.

Yesterday, in light of the official lunch of Windows Vista, he hosted Bill Gates. Probably as an act of sophisticated criticism on the business practices of Microsoft, Stewart had MS's logo all over the screen as long as Bill Gates was talking. The entire studio was covered with MS symbols and a shiny box of the newly-released Vista stayed in Stewart's hands as glued. But leaving the studio aside, the content of the interview itself was even more surprising. Well, was there an interview at all? Stewart looked as he was shy or scared asking Gates meaningful questions. He simply let him taking over the stage, boldly promoting Vista and MS. And Gates was great! He is a very good speaker and an impressive marketer. He told everyone how people oriented the new Vista is, how secure it is and how wonderful the world will be thanks to the computers. Stewart remained satisfied with deep satirical remarks, such as asking Gates about his password and if he has flying toasters as his screensaver. And for those who still had doubts about the nature of this 10 minutes episode, Gates clarified it when he simply got up and left the studio the moment his interview was over. What can you do? The man is busy. He has an empire to run.

The entire episode leaves a very bitter taste. The popular satirical show looks as if simply selling itself to promotion of the MS's new product and Jon Stewart appeared as a scared little boy, bathing in the shadow of glory of the one of the richest and most powerful men on Earth. Not a single question addressing the violent business practices of MS, the multiple problems and ambiguities surrounding the new Vista; not a hint on the great similarities of the new system with MAC operating system, no notion of the extension of MS to providing content and getting more involved in our lives; nothing. None of the really important and interesting question surrounding MS was raised in this rather unique opportunity offered to the "Daily Show". Jon Stewart literally set the stage (with huge windows logos) to Bill Gates to promote the new MS's creation for almost 10 minutes.

What was there? Why did the biting satiric show turned into mewing toothless creature carefully following every movement of its master and expressing poor sense of humor? Is it the power of Bill Gate's personality that turned Stewart into a pincher? Or is it the collaboration between Viacom, the owner of "Daily Show", and MS that dictates a scathing provision of infomercial time, mocking the viewers' intelligence? Or is it me not understanding the deep humor and the critical insight of the situation?

Interestingly enough, the next show, "Colbert Report" also addressed a technology related issue involving MS. He was talking about MS paying people editing the Wikipedia entry on the company to make it more positive. However, unlike Stewart, Colbert managed to touch upon a number of critical points. So what was the difference? The actual presence of Gates? The personality of the anchor? Or it is an issue of professionalism? Just like Oved. If you know how to do one thing good, maybe you should stick to it and make it perfect?