Stewart: So Much for 60 Votes

Daily Show host mocks Liz Trotta, Rick Santorum for views on women in combat

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart celebrated Valentine's Day last night by gleefully ripping into people who have a problem with the Pentagon's new policies on women in combat. He took some brief shots at Rick Santorum ("What a surprise, Prudence von StickUpHisAss has some concerns!") but saved his real ire for Fox News contributor Liz Trotta, who argued that sexual assault should be expected in the military. "You know the old saying," Stewart quipped, "you can't make a co-ed omelet without raping a few eggs." More»

Both Battleground and Lilyhammer get mixed reviews, as streaming services branch out

(NEWSER) - Online streaming sites Hulu and Netflix both launched original series this week, as both services take baby steps toward competing with regular television, reports Gigaom . A look at each:

• Hulu's Battleground is the more conventional of the two, a 13-episode comedy about a Senate campaign in Wisconsin that started today, with a new 22-minute episode airing each Tuesday. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has solid praise for Battleground, saying it is "a smart, well-written comedy series you might find on a premium cable network." The AP is less kind, however, calling it "a light, watered-down knockoff of The Office," while the New York Daily News comes down somewhere in-between.

'Daily Show' host also baffled over contraception controversy

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart took a week off from the Daily Show , and in that time, the nation managed to hand Rick Santorum three primary victories . "What the hell, America?" Stewart asked last night. "I leave you alone for one week. One week!" And it wasn't just Santorum's transition to frontrunner that Stewart missed: He also had to get caught up on the White House vs. the Catholic Church fight over birth control. Fortunately, that fight is already over, thanks to President Obama's compromise —right? Wrong. More»

Police believe the 75-year-old committed suicide

(NEWSER) - Soul Train creator and longtime host Don Cornelius was found dead this morning in his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home, in what police are calling an apparent suicide. Law enforcement sources say the 75-year-old died from a single gunshot wound to the head, which they believe was self-inflicted. Cornelius' Soul Train holds the title of the "longest-running first-run nationally syndicated show in television history," reports the Los Angeles Times . Its 35-year run began in 1971, and in 2010 Cornelius told the paper that he was working on a sort of biographical movie about the show. More»

Poor people need better lobbyists: host

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart ripped into Mitt Romney's tax return last night, and Elizabeth Warren showed up later to hammer home the point. "How can you justify making more in one day than the median American family makes in a year, while paying an effective tax rate of the guy who has to scan your shoes at the airport?" Stewart asked incredulously. Sure, as Romney pointed out, we might not want a candidate "who pays more taxes than he owes," Stewart agreed . "No, but we might want one who thinks that's wrong." Added Warren later in the show, "Washington now works for those who can hire an army of lobbyists." She pointed, to a booing audience, to a recent study showing the US' top 30 corporations spend more on lobbying than their tax bill. "That is the investment, and that is what they see as the future." More»