Last night, Jon Stewart covered Boko Haram and just blasted Rush Limbaugh for his mocking of Michelle Obama for participating in the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag.
Video and transcript below the fold.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, one of the largest economies in Africa, must be blowing out all the stops to get these guys.
CHRIS DICKEY (5/9/2014): The Nigerian government was trying to sweep this whole thing under the rug for the longest time.
Really? How big are Nigerian rugs? Cuz I can see sweeping mineral rights corruption under the rug, but hundreds of missing girls — we're gonna need a bigger rug.
NBC NEWS (5/4/2014): Many Nigerians have sharply criticized their President, Goodluck Jonathan, for his slow response.
ERIC SHAWN (5/10/2014): Nigeria's President rejected international help for weeks.
FOX NEWS (5/9/2014): It was three weeks before President Goodluck Jonathan said anything about the kidnapping publicly.
Just to be clear, I just wanna be clear. Goodluck Jonathan is the Nigerian President's actual name. They are not just saying, "You were elected President of a corrupt divided country overrun with nutbag terrorists who have also infiltrated your military. Good luck, Jonathan!" That's not it. It's his actual name. It's not a modifier.
So the President of Nigeria took three weeks to speak publicly about one of the most horrifying atrocities any people or country could suffer. Why is he talking now?
CBS NEWS (5/7/2014): The abductions in Nigeria were on April 15th. The story did not gain traction online until April 23rd, when two Nigerians tweeted #BringBackOurDaughters. Within days, a new slogan #BringBackOurGirls was being shared around the world.
I owe Twitter an apology. You're not just for casual racism and dick pics. (audience laughter)
And for weeks, Nigeria turned down any international assistance. But now:
5/12/2014:
AL-JAZEERA: Intelligence experts from a number of countries, including the U.S., are now assisting in the search for these girls.
FOX NEWS: British and French troops there ... Israel is sending troops, the Chinese are also lending a hand there. So there's a huge international effort.
See, that's the thing about hashtag activism. It cannot force a crazy person to do something. But it can shame a less crazy person into not doing nothing.
Whilst apparently driving a medium-crazy person crazier.
RUSH LIMBAUGH (5/8/2014): Apparently there's a Twitter — whaddaya call them — handle? ... It's Mrs. Obama looking sad. ... Is that not pathetic? What the hell message does that send? ... It is just unbelievable! ... The sad thing here is that the low information crowd that's puddling around out there on Twitter is going to think we're actually doing something. ... "At least she's trying, Mr. Limbaugh, what are you doing? At least Mrs. Obama cares. At least they're trying to get them back."
(audience booing in disgust)
He seems nice.
You know what, though, Rush? You're right! Sometimes the world has to choose sides. Let's see our choices. So that's Malala Yousafzai expressing solidarity with the victims of this outrage. What's our other choice?
Oh right, that fucking guy. So that's our choice. Malala or Rush — the quivering rage heap who is apparently desperately trying to extinguish any remaining molecule of humanity that might still reside in the Chernobyl-esque Superfund cleanup site that was his soul. (audience cheering and applause)
Let's see, who should we go with? Who should we choose? Well I don't know, why don't we tweet our votes to #FuckYouRush. (massive audience cheering and applause)
But let's go to the real villain, Boko Haram. Now that Boko Haram has the world's attention, what is your message?
ABUBAKAR SHEKAU: Kill, kill, kill, kill. Kill, kill, kill. Kill.
So more prose than poetry, really. Sounds like they're forming a punk band. All right. You guys are trying so hard to convince everybody that you're such bad-asses, but all you've done with this kidnapping is highlight who the real bad-asses are — the kids you kidnapped.
Compared to a teenager who knows that her desire for an education could get her dragged into a snake-infested jungle to be sold as a bride to some demented stick-chewing cartoon villain, but still gets up and goes to class every day fully aware of that danger — compared to their courage, I'd say Boko Haram is a bunch of little girls. But you know what? You don't deserve that compliment. We'll be right back.
Jon then looked at
recent stories from the sports world involving homophobia and racism.
Meanwhile, Stephen covered Michael Sam getting drafted as well, before turning to Fox News's batshit insane conspiracy theories about why Monica Lewinsky published her piece in Vanity Fair.
Jon talked with Dr. Martin Blaser, and Stephen talked with Glenn Greenwald, who got two segments.
