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Stewart: Media Is Lazy, but Fox News Is Worse

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Associated Press

For the first time Jon Stewart was a guest on Fox News yesterday.

Before Stewart could even be welcomed to the program, host Chris Wallace insults him an introduction, “After months of evasion, disconnected phone numbers, and press agents saying, ‘Who are you again?’ it appears he finally ran out of excuses.” Stewart nonchalantly responded, “As a viewer, I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that you would sully a program of this integrity with a presence such as Jon Stewart.”

The main topic of discussion was the media, but the following are the highlights:

Wallace notes that Stewart has referred to Fox News as “a propaganda delivery system,” and then asks Stewart, “Where do you come up with this stuff?” Stewart  simply smiles and replies “It’s actually quite easy when you feel it. You gotta feel it in your soul.”

Wallace then begins to question Stewart if he would say the same about ABC, CBS, or the NYT? Stewart shakes his head and responds, “I think Fox News is much more reactive.” Though he thinks “MSNBC is attempting to be a more activist organization.”

“You don’t think the New York Times is a liberal organization pushing a liberal agenda?” questions Wallace. Stewart replies: “Do I think they are liberal activists, no? I think Fox is a very special…”

At another point in the interview Wallace asks, why did the NYT and Washington Post asked readers to review Palin’s emails, but then did not ask anyone to read Obama’s 2,000-page health care bill? Stewart answers, “I think their bias is towards sensationalism and laziness. I wouldn’t say its towards the liberal agenda. 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, because the bias of the mainstream media is towards sensationalism, conflict, and laziness.”

“The embarrassment,” admits Stewart, “is that I’m given credibility in this world because of the disappointment that the public has in what the news media does.” Wallace contradicts Stewart’s statement, “I think our viewers think ‘Finally, we’re getting somebody who tells the other side of the story.’” “But Fox viewers are the most consistently misinformed media viewers,” Stewart reiterates, “Consistently.”

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