Stewart routinely challenges his interviewees. When Anderson Cooper told him CNN has a "sense of mission," Stewart asked, "When's it gonna show on air?" His tenacity in holding on to the truth as his interviewees try to spin it showed clearly when he debated marriage with Bill Bennett:
JS: Why not encourage gay people to join in that family arrangement if that is what provides stability to a society?
BB: Well, I think...gay people are already members of families. They're sons and they're daughters.
JS: So that's where the buck stops? That's the gay ceiling.
BB: Look, it's a debate about whether you think marriage is between a man and a woman.
JS: I disagree. I think it's a debate about whether you think gay people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.