talkpolitics | Jon Stewart and Fox News at the summit of Mount Fib

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Jon Stewart and Fox News at the summit of Mount Fib

Jon Stewart made his first appearance on a Sunday morning political show, appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (incidentally one of the lowest rated Sunday morning shows; Meet the Press with David Gregory is the highest rated). During the course of his interview, Stewart said "Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers? … Fox viewers, consistently, every poll." Turns out Stewart was wrong according to Politifact (a website that checks politicians/ electoral candidates' statements, but also will analyze media coverage of specific news stories). While it was true that in two surveys, Fox News viewers were the least informed and in some others "merely near the bottom," but Politifact noted that on some specific news stories-- Fox News viewers viewers were occasionally more informed that Daily Show viewers (but not other media outlets). So ultimately, Politifact declared Stewart's statement "False." Stewart made a public apology, saying it would be highly irresponsible not to issue a correction in good faith.

Stewart then spent part of his latest program pointing out PolitiFact has found questionable several statements aired by the Fox News Channel — including two PolitiFact National lies of the year and a 2010 Pants-on-Fire statement about banishing Christmas from Texas textbooks. Stewart termed his survey the ascent of Mount Fib. As Stewart listed each item, a motion graphic appeared under him, with the list eventually became so long it crowded his face out of the camera shot.

Less than 10 percent of President Obama's cabinet has worked in private sector jobs - Glenn Beck. FALSE.

White House political director was once right-hand man to Acorn. FALSE.

Texas Board of Education planned to removed references to Christmas and the United States constitution from text books FALSE.

Health care reform is a government take-over of health care. FALSE. LIE OF THE YEAR FOR 2010.

Muslim brotherhood wants to declare war on Israel (Glenn Beck). FALSE.

American troops have never been under the formal control of another nation (Karl Rove) FALSE.

Republican Florida governor Rick Scott's approval ratings are up. FALSE.

Massachusett's health care plan is 'widely unpopular' among state residents (Laura Ingraham). FALSE.

There has been more debt under President Obama than all other presidents combined (Sarah Palin). FALSE.

Health care bill includes death panels (Sarah Palin). FALSE. 2009 LIE OF THE YEAR.

Cash for clunkers program will give government access to your personal computer (Glenn Beck). FALSE.

Halting oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico will cost 8 billion a day (Sarah Palin). FALSE. PANTS ON FIRE AWARD.

Democrats are planning the largest tax increase in the history of the United States (Sarah Palin). PANTS ON FIRE AWARD.

United States Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed charges against Black Panthers (Bill O'Reilly). FALSE.

Senator Obama voted "present" quite often while in Congress. FALSE.

President Obama's science czar proposed forced abortions and sterilization drugs in drinking water (Glenn Beck). FALSE. PANTS ON FIRE AWARD

Andy Stein, labor union president, is most frequent White House visitor (Glenn Beck). FALSE.

America is the only country in the world that grants full citizenship on birth. FALSE.

Bill O'Reilly never called George Tiller a baby-killer, only reported what others said about him. FALSE.

Only Fox News covered Anita Dunn's admiration of Mao (Bill O'Reilly). FALSE.

No one at Fox News suggested you could face jail time if you didn't buy health insurance (Bill O'Reilly). FALSE. PANTS ON FIRE AWARD.

I also thought after seeing the Stewart interview with Chris Wallace (1.) he's incredibly fast on his feet in interviews (2.) One of the most talented comic wits in the league of Mort Sahl, or Lenny Bruce or even George Carlin. (3.) Has arrived at his stated goal of aspiring to be like Mark Twain and Will Rodgers (4.) Stewart's comment's on how movement conservatives can't and will never understand that political ideology isn't the only thing that motivates everyone else ("Hollywood, the press") unlike conservatives -- which is why Chris Wallace will never "get" Stewart.

Poll Time

[Poll #1754820]

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none of the above
none of the above

There's no "none of the above" on the last one. I don't watch TV news.

A post 90% about Jon Stewart and you don't include The Daily Show as one of the items in the last question? For shame.

Oddly, your poll doesn't allow me to vote. Still, I didn't find my fave answer as I watch almost no TV save for some sports events, sorry.

How can you expect to be informed if you're not in on the American cable in-fighting?

I occasionally watch Comedy Central (online though, so it doesn't count).

Sorry, the poll creator isn't intuitive and I meant to add more things and hit post before it was really finished. It's been corrected now.

Should have used check boxes instead of radio buttons.

This is generally why I don't like Stewart. He was wrong but he makes a joke of how he was wrong and he changes the argument ever so subtle as to make his audience not to care anymore about his original error.

I like political humor... I just HATE political humor being used as a form of debate. It's the new sophistry.

'Stewart's comment's on how movement conservatives can't and will never understand that political ideology isn't the only thing that motivates everyone else ("Hollywood, the press") unlike conservatives -- which is why Chris Wallace will never "get" Stewart.'

Rather ironic when it's a given with the left that conservatives all think one way for very shallow reasons.

Извинявам се за грешката. Въпросите трябва да работи.
Sorry about that, the questions should work now ;)

I changed the poll, and should work now. My apologies.

He was specifically wrong, yeah. He did outright admit he was wrong, though. He was also pretty close to correct. Stewart said they consistently, in every poll, scored worst. In fact, Fox viewers simply consistently scored near the bottom, not always at the bottom. His statement was thus an overstatement of a generally true fact - that Fox viewers are less informed than consumers of other media. They're simply not the least informed. He wasn't far off.

Google has still to improve a lot, it seems. :-)

Generally I look to see the top news stories on several political websites then I look for the details wherever google can find them.

Not quite...

'but Politifact noted that on some specific news stories-- Fox News viewers viewers were actually MORE informed that Daily Show viewers.'

The point.. their level of "informedness" is varied on the issues. Same as any audience.

No NPR?! DO YOU HATES NPR?!

I don't watch news anywhere. I read CNN and Fox news online daily and most days I go to the Neil Boortz website to read his Neils Nuze section and follow the Economist, Financial Times, John Stossel, Cato, Reason, on my Facebook feed. I also get political stories from a few other sources I follow on my FB feed such as the Secular Coalition for America, the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, the Campaign for Liberty, and a few others.

Oh I also listen to the Jerry Doyle (Conservative/libertarian talk show host who used to play Security Chief Garibaldi on Babylon 5) show on the radio when I'm driving home sometimes, but since it's only a 15 minute drive I don't catch much of it.

Outside of that I follow stories that if find interesting on one of those sites or through here or that someone I know posts/forwards to me and read widely on them trying to find opinions and views from all over the political spectrum.

Oh dear. What did he say about your mother?

Da!!!!!!

Jerry Doyle has a show? Heh... I'm surprised he's not doing more stuff. He was great as Garibaldi.

Neil Boortz? So what do you think about his thinly-veiled racist rant about 'Urban thugs'?

Same as any audience.

Not really, that's not how Politifact characterized the studies of all these either. They said there were a few enough exceptions for Stewart's original statement "every study consistently" to give it a false flag. Politifact noted that a majority of Pew studies show Fox viewers near the bottom of such surveys, but with some caveats that Stewart didn't mention. They also used the word "occasionally" in that statement on specific shows where Fox viewers seemed more informed than Daily Show viewers (but not over other media outlets). And Stewart was making a larger point about insular conservative talk radio and Fox News' supposedly being a balance against the liberal bias in the media, Hollywood, the universe, facts, etc. Chris Wallace let the cat out of the bag when he said "We give the other side of the story." (i.e. "we put a conservative and right wing spin on what we cover") Chris Matthews noted (as did many others), that was a serious mistake that even Roger Ailes wouldn't have uttered on the air (Ailes hired Matthews when he worked at MSNBC). "The other side" isn't really fair and balanced. it's just "one side. :-)

Edited 2011-06-22 23:02 (UTC)

If I'm in a TV mood, I'll watch Stewart and then catch the last 30 of O'Reilly. They are both entertaining, polarizing personalities - they don't get their high ratings from reading facts off the news wire.

Are they both biased? Of course they are, but if you know that going in, you shouldn't be too influenced by it.

I think I agree with him that the term racist is tossed around so often that it has largely become meaningless and that his criticism of inner city urban culture is pretty much spot on.

His argument is not racist in the least, it is Culturalist (if that wasn't a word it is one now) because he was not criticizing the urban thugs because of the color of their skin but rather because of the culture they chose to adopt.

It should be noted that one would be hard pressed to call someone whose preferred Presidential Candidate is an African American (Hermain Cain) someone who believes in the inherent superiority of one race over another.

Yeah, he went into talk radio after he lost his bid for a congressional seat in California.

He's got a little bit of the goldbug impending financial doom aspect of Beck but otherwise his show is pretty good and being Jerry Doyle is entertaining as hell.

Interestingly one of his main fill ins for days off is Dwight Schultz aka Murdock from the A-Team and Lt Reginald Barclay from Star Trek (TNG and Voyager)

No PBS? Jim Lehrer is the only US news programme I watch... a) it's the only one on free to air that I know of and b) he is one of the rare American news broadcasters with a soothing voice and a non-offensive accent; why is everyone always yelling over there all the time? If people have seen the 30 Rock Episode where Tracy goes on Sports Shouting - that's what most US news looks like to me :P If Stewart didn't bring the lulz I wouldn't be able to get through it, and although I think Colbert is the funnier and smarter of the two, the conservative caricature is so repulsive that I can only watch about one a week.

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Jon Stewart and Fox News at the summit of Mount Fib

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