Vyan

Friday, February 5

Jon Stewart Skewers O'Reilly into Bits

In this full length version of the interview between Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly there are so many golden moments where Stewart just completely burns O'Reilly and Fox News to the ground, but not very surprisingly most of the best bits were edited out of the final broadcast.



One section edited out near the 11 min mark was a discussion of how Stewart's Show Treated O'Reilly over the issue of protests under Bush and protests under Obama.

Stewart: I disagree that we took you out of context.

O'Reilly: You mocked me.

Stewart: We have, we do mock. If you had said "Most people surveyed think that protested who are arrested are Loons" we wouldn't have used the clip, but you didn't say that.

And he didn't, O'Reilly's whine here is that the Daily Show cut out his preface statement which said "Most of the protesters are peaceful" and ignored that later statement where he went on to say "Most people surveyed think the protesters are LOONS!" when there was no distinction made between those who were violent protesters and those who weren't. It's clear that O'Reilly felt anyone who protested the Iraq War and President Bush - Were Lunatics, he's constantly talking about the Lunatic Left Fringe so this dodge isn't very artful.

Later on Stewart does a full-on vivisection of Fox News, cutting it to it's core. And apparently he did so well that O'Reilly had to print a rebuttal on his own site.

Mr. Stewart bases his GOP belief primarily on two guys, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. As everybody knows, Sean is a conservative who admires the politics of Ronald Reagan, and he is very consistent with his point of view. So why does that offend people? Shouldn't there be one program, one program on cable news hosted by a political conservative? Does CNN have anybody like that? Does MSNBC? Does "Headline News"? Come on.

And then there's Glenn Beck. Trust me on this one: Beck doesn't like most party politics. He is a constitutionalist. He takes a very traditional point of view on what America should be. It's ridiculous, crazy even to assert that Glenn Beck devotes his program to promoting the GOP.

First off yes CNN does have people like that on staff (but they don't constantly expose their opinions on air) Lynn Cheney and Tucker Carlson both used to work for CNN. Headline News - IS NEWS, not "Headline Opinion." So does MSNBC. Let's take the show on MSNBC that airs for the longest time Morning Joe with former Gingrich Era Congressman Joe Scarborough, and follow that up with Pat Freaking Buchanan.

More from O'Reilly post interview cleanup:

As far as the rest of Fox News is concerned, we have plenty of Republicans and plenty of Democrats on the staff, but nobody here really cares about that. If you're good at your job, you get to keep your job. If you watch the reporting by our hard news people, much of it brought to you by Bret Baier and Shepard Smith, two very fair guys, you know it's all facts, all the time.

I give some credit to Shep Smith, but he's just one out of a full house of crazy.

Secondly Stewart's main complain wasn't just with Hannity and Beck, it was with the entire Network being deliberately right-wing and getting away with it using just a sprinkling of neo-objectivity from people like Shep Smith or Major Barret every once in awhile. They discuss this about 16 Mins in.

Stewart: What are you News from 9am to 11am, then again from 1pm to 4pm? You're "News" every other Tuesday, with Jewish Holidays off?

You've taken a cyclonic media arm of a political party and sprinkled it, you've cut it a little bit of "objectivity" - a little bit of Chris Wallace asking a tough question.

O'Reilly: What do you mean? We're News from 9 til 4 when Cavuto comes on.

Stewart: Not even close, because they're also part of the Journey.

O'Reilly: What's the Journey?

Stewart: The Journey begins in the Morning with the wide-eyed Innocent of Fox and Friends: "Y'know Obama has a lot of Czars, I googled 'Czar' - did you know that's a Russian word? For a Russian Leader?" Or "These children in second grade are singing the praises of Obama, did you know they sing the praises of their leader - In North Korean"

And then when the Hard News starts it's like "Some people are concerned that they're indoctrinating children"

O'Reilly: You think that the Fox News Network is setup solely to provide aid and comfort to the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement.

Stewart: That's right, and to make some money.

O'Reilly then tries to counter all of these examples by arguing that since Fox News isn't biased for Republicans because neither John McCain or Dick Cheney would comes The Factor.

Stewarts: McCain's not "GOP Enough" for you - and maybe Dick Cheney saw all these lights - y'know he hates to come out of the dark

More from O'Reilly's cleanup:

Now Stewart has a minor beef with the "Fox & Friends" crew in the morning, but that's a hybrid news/entertainment program. So my question for John is this: You have an entertainment program. You're a liberal. So what if some of the "Fox & Friends" crew are conservative? Doesn't that balance things out?

So you're argument is that Stewart's COMEDY Show is "Liberal" so Fox gets to have a NOT COMEDY SHOW that isn't Liberal and that's some kind of Balance? Does anybody remember when Fox tried to actually do a "Conservative Comedy" Show that featured Funny Guy and Gal Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter on it's debut program? That's lasted about half a minute, didn't it?

I don't think Stewart begrudges that Fox that Fox is (Mostly) Conservative, it's just that they play this bullshit game of pretending they aren't - and then when they get called on it they're excuse is well, gee everyone else is SO LIBERAL then don't we have a responsibility to be SO Conservative?

They can't seem to make up their damned mind. Are you "Fair and Balanced" or are you Conservative? Nevermind the fact that MSNBC Does have a Conservative Hosted Program on the air... where's the Fox Liberal Hosted Program?

And no, Greta Van Susteren doesn't come close. She's about crime and sensationalism and always has been since she got her start in broadcasting as a consultant with Geraldo Rivera during the first O.J. Trial. She's an ambulance chaser, not a journalist.

Seriously, these guys couldn't let Alan Colmes outdoors to take leak without Hannity holding his leash, and now even he's gone. I frankly don't give a Crap that Fox is Conservative, I'd just wish they'd Admit It stop Lying about it - and Stop Pretending to be NEWS!.

But the best part was when Stewart took down Cavuto.

Stewart: You (O'Reilly) have become in some ways the voice of sanity here. Which when said is like being the skinniest kid at Fat Camp.

O'Reilly: Cavuto's Sane?

Stewart: No, he is not.

O'Reilly: Cavuto is insane? Neal Cavuto?

Stewart: His thing is all about questions. "Are Democrats Tanking the Stock Market?" It's all done with this very subtle propaganda, it's all done in questions. "I'm not saying Obama is a Stalinist, I'm just putting up Stalin's picture behind me and saying all his programs (are).

Look I grew up in Jersey, I know what this is: "I'm not saying you're mother's a whore - I'm just saying she has Sex for Money!"

Here's how I know you are (In the Tank for Republicans), because Fox News has done a 180 on so many integral principles of what a News Organization should be. Fox News used to be all about "You don't criticize a President during War Time. It's unacceptable, It's Treasonous -it gives Aid and Comfort to the Enemy." All of a sudden, for some reason you can say "Barack Obama is destroying the Fabric of this Country".

Here's what Fox has done through their cyclonic perpetual emotion machine. 24 Hours a Day. 7 Days a Week. They've taken reasonable concerns about this President and this economy and turned it into a full-fledge panic attack about the Coming of Chairman Mao!

O'Reilly response to this was priceless...

O'Reilly: Some people do that - but most don't. Not Brett Baier?

Ok, Look - when you have people on your network seriously suggesting that the President is a Stalinlist and you're defense is basically "Not All of 'Em" - it reminds me of the Kathy Griffin routine where she goes off on the Catholic Church being a bunch of "Kid Fuckers" and her mother weakly exclaims..."Not All of 'Em"!

It's 2 mins into this routine.

When you traffic is things as toxic as calling the duly elected President of the United States a Secret Muslim Terrorist/Stalinist/America-Hater - it becomes the DUTY of the rest of the people on that Network to MAKE IT CLEAR that they disagree, not just passively let those things slide - because if you do, then the entire rest of the Network is tacitly (if not actively) endorsing it.

Afterwhich you shouldn't be SHOCKED that a significant percentage of your audience believes that Crap.

It's like not everybody in the Tea Party Movement has a Obama is Hitler Sign in their hand, but you NEVER see anyone of them complain or protest the use of that kind of imagery, do you? It's then fair to say - They Support it.

You don't have to be holding the sign yourself, you just have to be standing next to the crazy guy with the sign while smiling and wearing the "I'm With Teh Crazy" T-shirt to show where you stand on the issue.

Vyan

No comments: