Maria Ressa guests on ‘The Daily Show’ as Jon Stewart hosts amid Jimmy Kimmel suspension

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'The Daily Show' host Jon Stewart talks to Rappler CEO Maria Ressa about the similarities between the Philippines under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte and the current United States administration under President Donald Trump, who has gone after major media outlets

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa guested on The Daily Show and underlined the need to “protect the rights you have” as Jon Stewart surprisingly helmed the episode on Thursday, September 18 (Friday, September 19, Manila time), in the wake of the suspension of fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Stewart, who normally hosts The Daily Show on Mondays, talked to Ressa about the similarities between the Philippines under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2022 and the current United States administration under President Donald Trump, who has gone after major media outlets for what he describes as false or misleading coverage. 

Trump celebrated the indefinite suspension of Kimmel, whose show Jimmy Kimmel Live! got pulled off the air by ABC following backlash over his monologue about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was an influential ally of the president.

Now in his second term, Trump has sued newspapers New York Times and Wall Street Journal, seeking billions of dollars in damages from them, and has threatened networks that feature entertainers who criticize him to have their licenses “taken away.” 

“It’s identical to what happened in the Philippines. I feel like it’s both deja vu and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder),” said Ressa as Rappler faced a shutdown order from the Securities and Exchange Commission during the time of Duterte. 

Rappler won the shutdown case at the Court of Appeals. 

Also during the time of Duterte, ABS-CBN was taken off the air in 2020 after he repeatedly threatened to shut the TV network down and block its franchise renewal. 

For Ressa, it was important that she and the people at Rappler “kept doing our jobs” and “kept putting one foot in front of the other.”

“If you don’t move and protect the rights you have, you lose them. And it’s so much harder to reclaim them,” said the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“There were two ways I was going to describe this moment. It does start with the manipulation and the corruption of our public information ecosystem. I was saying, is this an information apocalypse or is it an information armageddon?” 

“Because I’m optimistic, I chose armageddon. Think about it. Part of it is, apocalypse is done, it’s the end of the world. But armageddon is the battle. This is the battle.” 

Ressa authored the 2022 book How To Stand Up To A Dictator. – Rappler.com