How "The Daily Show" railroads the people it interviews

A few years ago, I was speaking with someone who had once been a personality on “The Daily Show.” I heard horrible stories about how much work was required to find dupes to be exploited, how much energy went into building trust with the interview subject, how many hours upon hours of taping were required to get one snippet that could be used to make fun of the target.

In the end, it was too much for this personality, who had to leave the show out of guilt over this exploitation. This person is one of the more liberal people I’ve encountered. This wasn’t about politics — indeed, none of the examples were political, but just about basic decency.