Video: Jon Stewart Eviscerates Fox News On Fox News

Jon Stewart took Thursday night off from The Daily Show for "mental health," conveniently missing covering the resignation of Anthony Weiner, but he made up for his absence yesterday. On Sunday morning Stewart sat down for a discussion of "media bias" and Stewart's role as "a comedian first" on the certainly unbiased Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Fun times!

To get things going, Stewart defended the non-Fox media's biases compared to Fox's clear conservative bent. The Times, for instance, has a bias "towards sensationalism and laziness," he says. "I wouldn't say its towards a liberal agenda. It's light fluff so it's absolutely within the wheelhouse. If your suggestion is that they're restlessly partisan, then why haven't they gone and backed away from Weiner? They jumped into the Weiner pool with such delight and such relish."

And that was just the opening shots. Later on, when Wallace and Stewart debate the level of "political commentary" in a recent Daily Show clip comparing a Sarah Palin video and herpes commercials. "You're insane," Stewart says when Wallace calls the bit clear political commentary. "Here's the difference between you and I. I'm a comedian first. My comedy is informed by an ideological background, there's no question about that. But the thing that you will never understand...is that Hollywood, yeah, they're liberal, but that's not their primary motivating force. I'm not an activist. I am a comedian. And my comedy is informed by ideology, there is no question. But I am not an ideologue."

When Wallace latched onto Stewart's routine of explaining himself as being only a comedian, Stewart lashed back. "I said I'm a comedian first, I never said I'm only a comedian. Being a comedian is much harder than what you do. Being a comedian I put material though a process, a comedic process."

The whole debate is actually pretty interesting, and really gets going further in when Stewart seems genuinely angry with Wallace over the way Fox handles actual news. "The embarrassment is that I'm given credibility in this world because of the disappointment that the public has in what the news media does," he said. "Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers? The most consistently misinformed? Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll."

You can watch the whole video here:

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on June 20, 2011 8:54 AM

Comments [rss]

slowmodem

Once again conservatives rely on kindergarten ethics. As you may have to tell a 5 year old, just because MSNBC does it - doesn't make it right.

jeebs

My question: why is Jon Stewart sucking Chris Wallace's 2in. red state dick? He's as bad as the rest at FOX and Stewart seems not to want to take him, no pun intended, head-on? One of his more lame interviews- i'm disappointed.

Matt Midgette

is it me or did the interview start off with the Capital in the background and end with storm clouds?

Jeremy Dost

Great interview and it's nice to see Jon's real opinion come out a few times. Still - I really don't understand why people confuse political satire with news. To me it's a non-issue. Stewart does political satire - I'm sure he'd agree. Fox does not - they would never claim to (cnn/abc/nytimes etc as well). Both mediums have existed for a long time and they cross paths often but they are just plain different. Think court jester vs town crier. Different purposes, both potentially with bias and it's up to the viewer to interpret it.

starrygordon

But a lot of the 'news' as purveyed by the boss media is a parody of what the news would be if it were actually informative. So you could see it all as a kind of dumb, ugly satire.

SpaceChief

Um - the author musta missed that Colbert also missed Thursday night - not because of the Weiner deal - no - they were traveling to the west coast for the Daytime Emmy show - they were nominated for the 'Rally 4 Sanity'. It was right there - under the quip you published. You just gave more weight to JS argument about sensationalist media...

Peter_Schulte

In Germany we had a lot of experience with propaganda. With that in mind, and watching FOX News, our impression is: Is it Comedy or just another North Korean Network? And after a few seconds we can answer ourselves: No, it´s not a North Korean Network. Fox News is less trustable.

Rob T Firefly

Whenever I'm trying to have an honest discussion with someone, with the hopes of understanding them or their viewpoint more clearly, I ask them questions and then refrain from constantly cutting them off mid-answer with more weasel-worded shit. Actually listening to someone's answers to your questions can be quite illuminating, kids.

I hate that smug pundit prick "interview" style so damned much.

Kimberley Truelove

Wallace is smug and annoying.

Wide Eyed Pupil

JS on points 9-1. Next time it might be KO.

Josh Jones

To all those attempting to explain a joke to the wounded troll who calls himself "Jake Taylor," give it up. He obviously has no sense of humor and needs to nurse some kind of weird persecution complex.

Wide Eyed Pupil

The NYT is sooo establishment. Just look at their hatchet job on Julian Assange. They've knowingly employed CIA staff to write for the "national interest" and provide 'real world' cover for the agents.