Jon Stewart 'surprised' at meltdown over his belief in coronavirus lab-leak theory - Fox News

Comedian Jon Stewart said in a new interview he was surprised at the major pushback to his espousement of the coronavirus lab-leak theory and wondered how it got "politicized.".

The former "Daily Show" host shocked media observers in June when he launched into a passionate bit on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" about the coincidence that the Wuhan coronavirus emerged in a city with a superlab that experimented on bat coronaviruses, saying, "The disease is the same name as the lab!".

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about his new Apple TV+ project, Stewart cited the Colbert interview while discussing the power of Twitter.

"You’re referencing your June appearance on The Late Show where you went all in on the theory that the coronavirus originated from a lab in China.

I couldn’t tell if Colbert was entertained by your bit or maybe a little nervous," reporter Lacey Rose said.

Disgraced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called Stewart's rhetoric "dangerous and shortsighted," Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman fumed that "celebrities" shouldn't be considered reliable sources of information, and Forbes rounded up viewers uncomfortable with Stewart's words.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Jon Stewart during Monday’s June 14, 2021 show.

The re-emergence of the lab-leak theory as credible or likely after being declared implausible and "debunked" by fact-checkers and media reports in 2020 has led to yet another reckoning for the press on groupthink and bias issues

However, Stewart said in the interview that Colbert knew what he was going to say ahead of time