Rachel Maddow And Lawrence O'Donnell Mock Chris Wallace In Jon Stewart Interview (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell talked about Jon Stewart's "Fox News Sunday" appearance on O'Donnell's Monday show--and both pronounced themselves surprised and more than a bit confused with how the talk turned out.

"It was such a strange interview," Maddow, who has conducted her own lengthy sit-down with Stewart, said. "I can't believe that that went as ["Fox News Sunday" host] Chris Wallace intended it to."

O'Donnell said he was baffled by Wallace's decision to play clips of Comedy Central when Stewart attacked Fox News.

"He was comparing Fox News to Comedy Central," he said. "That was his choice ... not understanding that the word Fox News needs to defend in its name is 'news.'"

Maddow said the part she was most surprised by was Wallace's full-throated embrace of the notion that the media is deeply biased.

She said his argument that Fox News is presenting the "other side" of the story as a counterweight to the liberal media was "straight out of talk radio" and a "caricature" of the media.

"I took a step back and thought, oh, Chris Wallace is not actually the guy I thought he was," she said. "He's a lot more like the other Fox News hosts than we knew, and not in a way that I think flattered him."

"you could smell whiffs of the Fox News Kool-Aid on his breath," O'Donnell said.

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Comments

[KarenInCheyenne]

04:34 PM on 08/01/2011

what is it with Fox News defenders & ratings? Is news supposed to be a popularity contest?

[abausch]

12:30 PM on 06/30/2011

Rachel who? Look at the ratings no one watches look at the ratings.

[Gigi Jacobs]

03:33 PM on 06/24/2011

Too bad Racel Blog hackers don't see the irony in pretending to be so feminine and then spending all their time destroying things without any regard for anyone but themselves. Like those who killed the 11 year old boy and got him to hang himself.

You prove the point of brain hormones and brain structure all on your own. You're talking to the 1 of 12 in CA in the Beta Program for MGM's (a precurser to the The Advanced Placement Program) and had I not the stroke, well, you'd be looking pretty fooish.

It's too bad you can't use your talents to improve the quality of one's life instead. But its more manly to be "right". So, men in dresses, hope you have a good day today since you can't seem to do much else. Doesn't strike you funny you have to takke on a cripple to even do anything?

Gigi Jacobs
[e-mail]

[cobry4949]

02:41 PM on 06/23/2011

MAddow ask all the right questions yesterday but she forgot one thing, ask what is out national security policy on the middle east. Sheshould of sais their going after medicare and soc security off the bask of the ppor and elderly so we can play war and the Generals can hav war toy's. In all reality Ms. Maddow they need to stick the Generals where the bullets are flying, they need to put the Generals where the enlsited are at. They need to send Generals out on these hunts. These Generals fly in for photo ops and then fly out. YEs, the troops are tired because it is endless and the so called afgan security forces, our soldiers would not trust them with a BB gun. We need to get out of the whole middle east today, and take care of America because were broke.

[Scott Roddy]

01:25 PM on 06/23/2011

What channel are they on? I have been too busy watching Current TV.

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

12:41 PM on 06/23/2011

FOX NEWS = COMEDY!

[Mel Rook]

05:44 PM on 06/23/2011

Fox News is not funny. It's laughable. But it's not funny.

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

12:40 PM on 06/23/2011

GOP PLATFORM = MURDOCH = PERIOD!

[ebroadcast]

06:17 PM on 06/22/2011

Stewart made Wallace admit to what we've always know was true about fox; it is a biased entertainment program. Period.

[Gigi Jacobs]

06:05 PM on 06/22/2011

It's too bad the moderators on this site are more on top of it than the moderators on the Rachel Maddow Blog. The gay female bullys on her site put the rest of the bullys to shame-even the ones who were repsonsible for the death of the 11 year old boy. But I doubt you'll find those bullies moderated with not much competancy.

[Libleet]

05:46 PM on 06/22/2011

I think Lawrence sums it up best when he notes that COMEDY Central is supposed to be about comedy and Fox NEWS is supposed to be about news. If it was called Fox Opinion no one would have a beef.

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

12:39 PM on 06/23/2011

OR what it TRULY is ----- GOP ROVE PLATFORM --- ARE AMERICANS that ignorant?

[toddyP]

03:45 PM on 06/22/2011

i find it amusing that people refer to ratings as if it meant anything AT ALL. i mean, hitler was popular... did it make him right?

[Gigi Jacobs]

06:07 PM on 06/22/2011

You may find Rachel to be a bit over rated in the end also.

[ebroadcast]

06:10 PM on 06/22/2011

that's all that fox viewers have to cling to. That & the fact that they are consistently most misinformed audience out there

[garylloyd]

02:38 PM on 06/22/2011

Now that I've had a chance to read-up on Ensign and Vitter it's abundantly clear to me Rachel Maddow is a demagogue on par with Sen. McCathy himself.

In her incoherent rant against Pelosi and Congressional Dem elites she eviscerated them for using a double standard against Weiner. Citing Ensign and Vitter, she scolded Dems for not applying the same standard to them they applied to Weiner.

But Ensign was booted out of office and may well face serious criminal charges. These charges were demanded by the Dems and acted on by the GOP -- so what in the world is Maddow talking about?

As to Vitter, the only evidence against him was his name in the DC Madam's telephone book. He has yet admitted to using prostitutes and there's not a scintilla of evidence beside the telephone book that indicates he did.

Furthermore, for all her wailing and gnashing of teeth, Maddow doesn't let on exactly how the Dem leadership was supposed to boot Vitters out of office. How do you demand that when all you have is a number in a madam's telephone book?

The point is this: Maddow engaged in Demagoguery, not truth and light. Her appeal was to emotion not reason. There's no commonality between there's three incidents, nothing at all that suggests a "double-standard" was used.

Nothing!

[Ralphee]

04:07 PM on 06/22/2011

I think what she was alluding to was the lack of outrage by the republican party towards the conduct of its own members , the ensign thing was sleazy in the extreme and as to vitter if your name is in a DC madame's phone book and your a politician , well there's smoke and then there is fire , and the hypocracy of the whole situation.Liking Maddow to Mcarthy really is stretching a long partisan bow

[Gigi Jacobs]

06:10 PM on 06/22/2011

A lot of what Rachel says may be given more credit than deserved. Charm can go a long way. Heart she has not. AS time goes on, it may become more clear to you that she just might not be the personality she poses to be. Don't say you have not been warned

[Brer Orabbit]

02:30 PM on 06/22/2011

If they had information of value to talk about, wouldn't they change the subject?

[psmarc93]

01:53 PM on 06/22/2011

What so many liberals can't get their minds around is that FOX and its fans are perfectly cynical. They are proud of the fact that they lie, slant and pomote one side of the issue. As Stewart points out, Wallace is convinced that "everyone does it," because that's the "soup he swims in;" he believes that all the other media are lying and pushing a liberal point of view. FOX's answer, however, is not to balance the lies by telling the truth, but to "balance by telling their point of view." Oddly, it shows a total lack of confidence in their message's fundemental true-ness, or at least the ability of the Truth to dispel lies. It's perversion, really.

[Esmerelda Foofypants]

12:56 PM on 06/22/2011

I want to genetically cross Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow and grow the most amazing television show host ever in a lab. I'd also like to make a few genetic modifications so that said super-host stands about eighty feet tall and can shoot lasers from his or her eyes.

[psmarc93]

01:45 PM on 06/22/2011

Doctor! You go... too... FAR! (lightning crashes) You tempt the laws of God and Nature! (music swells) For god's sake, doctor! DON'T PULL THAT SWITCH! (Dr. Foofypants cackles:) BWwwwwahahahahaha!

[Esmerelda Foofypants]

02:31 PM on 06/22/2011

I want to have this comment's babies.

Genetically modified squirrel-headed babies with giant suction cup hands.