Jon Stewart, Fox News Trade Barbs

From the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz:

DENVER, Aug. 25 -- Jon Stewart ripped the cable news networks Monday as a "brutish, slow-witted beast" and castigated Fox News as "an appendage of the Republican Party."

Wearing a gray T-shirt and a healthy stubble, the "Daily Show" host told reporters that Fox's fair-and-balanced slogan is "a (expletive) you to people with brains" and that only "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace "saves that network from slapping on a bumper sticker . . . Barack Obama could cure cancer and they'd figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster."

"I'm stunned to see Karl Rove on a news network as an analyst," he said of the Bush White House aide-turned Fox commentator.

A Fox News spokesman replied that "Jon's clearly out of touch," citing a Pew study showing the network has the most balanced audience in cable news, 39 percent Repubicans and 33 percent Democrats. "But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon as evidenced by the crash and burn ratings of this year's Oscars telecast."

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Comments

[michael429]

CNBC= The cure......

[MaryEMartin]

I've been looking for a place to mention this! In the past few weeks, I have become shamefully addicted to CNN and "the best political team on television." Yes, they report what's under their noses, but I have never seen such superficial coverage or superficial thinking. I laughed when Carl Bernstein was trying to answer some of Soledad's questions. He tried to say that perhaps the questions and expected answers were simplistic. The result? On CNN anyone who tries to make a thoughtful comment is shut down. But I'm an outsider, from Canada! I guess PBS is the place for some thoughtful content...and of course, Jon Stewart is wonderful. What else can we do but laugh.
Mary E. Martin www.theosgoodetrilogy.com

[apduncan1]

AMEN!!!

The networks nowadays are just vehicles for propaganda, obfuscation and plain misinformation.

PBS, the BBC and, yes, al-Jazhira, are better news reporters.

[jnratliff]

Why do you need 15,000 people to cover a convention? They don't actually do anything. They don't actually look for news, they look for something that will make the people that pay them happy!
15,000 liars, cheats, morons, flunkies and fools that will cut of their own noses to spite their face.
You know until America brings back honesty, integrity, and intelligence to the political system again our country is screwed.
The only way to bring back the system is to get rid of all the hacks involved with it.
Vote against all incumbents starting this year with the republicans. Make republicans in government as rare as an honest republican.
Then in two years do the same with the dems then repeat every two years until we get it cleaned up.

[Binx101]

Indeed you are right. Fine observations.

There are more talking heads sitting in rows of chairs that have absolutely nothing to say. CNN however competes with FOX. It is an interesting competition. FOX News hires formerly credentialed news hacks to read scripts. Fred Barnes does it for the money - William Krystoll does it for the air-time (he has plenty of money) Barnes philosophically mocks Obama with same s*** different day incantations - while Krystoll - apparently suffering from chronic dyspepsia does his best to imitate a jealous rich kid from a 1930's movie - sitting at his huge birthday party with none of invited guests attending. His hubris prevents one from feeling pity.

CNN though doesn't hire the cynics directly (with the exception of Lou Dobbs) - instead they hire the day workers adorning little boxes on the screen, sometimes so many, one might think they were watching Hollywood Squares. But don't fear - there's nothing there to miss. First Wolf Blitzer says something - then Anderson Cooper repeats it - and down the line they all repeat the same thing but twist it slightly until the viewer begins to absorb their contention. If it were not so incredibly boring and amateurish - it would be fascinating.

Good mental health forces one to click away before madness sets in.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com

[pjburns11]

When Obama is president, Jon Stewart can be the head of the FCC and finally fine those idiots at fox for purporting their distorted fantasies as news. Of course he would also have to fine himself, but it would be worth it.

GREAT WORK JON! Keep at 'em!

By the way, the oscar awards didn't tank bc he was the host - they tanked bc movies suck. Anyone that DID decide to watch, did so for his great wit, I am sure.

Rock peace!

[Peteyman]

Jon Stewart wins simply because Fox responded to him.

[lisakaz2]

Jon's out of touch??? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Cavendish]

I second that LOLOLOLOLOLOL!

[jnratliff]

It amazes me how all these christians look up to this dobson fellow who thinks that christians should pray for bad things to happen to other people. Do you think god instructed him to say those things?
You people must worship one strange god.

[Youth4Obama]

I pray for the day when President Obama shuts down Fox News & Hannity for spreading hate, rumors and lies.

[devinsbuddy]

We can only hope! But, thankfully, President Obama' s administration will restore the Constitution that the NeoCons took away from us.

[SCharb]

If Obama wins this election, Newscorp will go belly-up by 2016 and Murdoch will become a panhandler by 2020. Just my guess.

[realityczech4u]

Apparently you don't subscribe to " I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
So what other censorship and assaults on the First Amendment are you praying for?

[FrictionSoul]

Apparently you subscribe to "I approve of your right to lie, spread hate and will defend your right to do so"

It's not censorship. It's common sense. But all Youth4Obama needs to do is stop praying and stop watching.

[brighterside]

Hitler and the Nazi's started out using Propaganda. Look where that took us in history. America is slowly going down that road towards fascism. I know, I know we say that it will never happen. So did all those innocent Germans before WWII happened.

Fascist News networks like Faux is a danger to our nation and society. It needs to be shut down for good.

[firelord5000]

Jon Stewart runs circles around Fox in his sleep, im afraid to see what he'd do at 100%...

[jplass]

i think those 33% are watching fox for comedy. its like the colbert report but so much better

[llnwonderland]

I watch it when I want to feel smarter then someone who makes more money and has more power then me.

[MemphisBuffalo]

Oscar ratings? Is that the best Faux News can come up with as a counter? Looks like they proved his point about them being a "brutish, slow-witted beast."

[SaraPulis]

Maybe Fox means to say that they accidentally turned 1/3 of their viewership into Democrats.

[diogeron]

Remember the University of Maryland study a few years back that said that people who got their news from Fox were the most uninformed on major issues of the day? As Al Franken said, "The more you watch Fox, the stupider you become."

[MiddleRoadLiberal]

I think it was that same study that showed viewers of PBS were the most informed. Why? Because it has that "liberal bias." "Liberal bias" = information.

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

"The more you watch Fox, the stupider you become."

Hear! Hear!

[Bubba Gump]

Want confirmation? I'm a former independent voter, transformed by "W" (and FOX) into a Democrat!

[JDinBalt]

That's what they did to me! I started the decade as a lifelong conservative and got liberalized by Fox News around the start of the Iraq war. Thank you Fox News for helping me figure out what bull you peddle!

[Krankil]

How does having a 39%-33% audience or even a 50-50 audience is a proof of being fair and balanced. Rush Limbaugh has more liberal listeners than some hosts of air america shows. Does that make rush limbaugh a liberal?
How stupid are these people? or how arraogant are they to keep insulting the intelligence of their audience??

[Redrover666]

It's evidence of a balanced audience. Which is denied by the far left.

[gerontion72]

Have another swig of the Kool Aid, son.

[VinnieTheSnake]

Their slogan "Fair and Balanced" is supposed to mean their coverage of the news, not the makeup of their audience.

[Stanley]

Howard Kurtz is a little too bitchy and much less journalist than he should be. What journalism school did you go to Howard?

[Durango]

Not as good a school as Jon Stewart went to.

[Bubba Gump]

Aw, come on, Stanley! Jon Stewart was just following along with John McCain's "we're just trying to have a sense of humor" at someone else's expense!

Can't take it -- then don't dish it out!

[PotatoesVsPotatos]

You know the guy is good when Fox starts barking :-)

[chelliza]

Is there anyone who knows even one of these 33% Democrats who watch FOX?

[Shikamaru]

I watch fox on Sunday nights @ 7, not for the news, but for the Simpsons.

[Redrover666]

Apparently, as someone pointed out earlier, most of you watch FOX.

[MainSpark]

"Apparently, as someone pointed out earlier, most of you watch FOX."

The article wasn't about the FOX Network. It was about Jon Stewart's remarks about FOX News!!

[SeamusOB]

Fox News/TV Owners obviously view their use of the English language in much the same way as "Humpty Dumpty" did, in his tete-a-tete in John Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland": i.e., "Words mean what I want them to mean; nothing more, nothing less!" And to "anchor" that credo, Humpty's final salvo (to Alice's complaint "you can't do that") retorts: "It all depends, on who is the Master and who is the Slave."

IF/When we ever finally wake up to this hegemony over our PUBLICLY OWNED airwaves - & install a national administration that isn't so terribly cowed by/indebted to the major media owners - we can possibly begin take some steps to regain control. And then insist - via our voting powers - on truly balanced "reasonableness in media!
Which is NOT to say "bland" or government controlled, but both "FAIR & BALANCED", as our language intends that term to be interpreted.
Presently totally programmed "Talking Heads" - virtually Puppets on a String (& fairly appropriate to the current Admin.) - could then start becoming a thing of the past, in the present.

[Tulka2]

Don't you?! I like to keep my enemies close. But, shhh, don't tell Fox, but i have NEVER watched a commercial on that station. Point of honor. I watch, but i don't pay.

[SaraPulis]

Ha, no. I don't even flip past the channel anymore lest my fraction of a second of in-tuning be construed as intentional viewership.

[thebyron]

Jon Stewart is out of touch? Sorry, Fox, but it just ain't so.

[Cavendish]

That comment is just too funny, "out of touch". They're KILLING ME! ROFL!

The post by lisakaz2 says it all:

"Jon's out of touch??? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL"