Common Performs At White House Poetry Night,Jon Stewart Slams Fox News, Sean Hannity For ‘Common’ Outrage (Videos)

Watch the video from the night Common visited the white house that caused a controversy.

In the midst of conservatives whining about President Obama inviting Common to perform poetry at the White House, the rapper got the chance to showcase his skills yesterday (May 11).

The Chicago native showed that he is anything but the “vile” rapper Fox News tried to portray him to be.

President Obama talked about what makes a good poem just prior to Common taking the stage.

“The power of poetry is that everybody experiences it differently,” Obama said. “There are no rules for what makes a great poem. Understanding it is not just about metaphor or meter. Instead a great poem is one that resonates with us… that challenges us and that teaches us something about ourselves,” the President continued before joking that he would not be reading his own poetry on the night.

and here is the aftermath…

The subject of Wednesday night’s “Daily Show” brought out an interesting new talent in Jon Stewart, aside from his already impeccable talent for finding hypocrisy on Fox News. The network’s outrage (particularly Sean Hannity’s) over Chicago rapper Common visiting the White House to read poetry Tuesday got Stewart so fired up, he ended his segment with a freestyle rap about it.

To back up, Hannity and company on Fox News expressed their extreme displeasure this week with vegetarian, Grammy-winning Common going to the event because of his “misogynist” and “violent” lyrics. Too bad they didn’t read all the lyrics to the songs they were criticizing, or they would have seen how he talks about those things as a way of calling for peace. For this Stewart also became outraged, but for all the right reasons:

“Are we really doing this again? For this guy, Common? The guy from the Gap ads? The guy from the Queen Latifah rom-coms? Elmo’s friend?”

Stewart then got down to business, finding all the right clips to display Fox News’ utter hypocrisy in many forms. First, a clip of FoxNews.com having a pleasant interview with the same “dangerous” rapper they don’t want in the White House. Next, a clip of Hannity saying Common’s lyrics sound like they’re about cop-killing followed by a Fox News on-air birthday wish to “Cop Killer” lyricist Ice-T.

Now what about Sarah Palin’s “Don’t retreat, reload” comment? If you remember, Fox had few negative things to say about that. And if the Right is really only outraged by violent song lyrics, Stewart wants to know why George W. Bush honored Johnny Cash, whose lyrics talk about murder and misogyny in a much more clear-cut fashion than Common.

“Seriously Hannity, what’s the difference?” Stewart asked, wondering if it was just because Common rapped about violence toward George W. Bush in one of his songs that he didn’t want him around. “Would you feel that way about people using violent rhetoric about President Obama?”
Naturally, Stewart produced a clip of just that: singer Ted Nugent cursing out Obama and Hillary Clinton during the election, followed by Hannity saying he had no qualms about the hateful speech.

“This isn’t even fun anymore,” Stewart admitted. “It took longer to play that clip than it did to find it.”

What follows in the second part below is an epic moment in “Daily Show” history. Finding it impossible to express how ridiculous Fox News’ “Common” outrage really is, Stewart decided to express himself in the same medium that was being discriminated against. You have to see Stewart’s “freestyle” rap to truly believe it. Tell us what you think in the comments.

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