Early in the interview, Wallace flashed a previous quote of Stewart's calling Fox News a "relentless agenda-driven 24 hour news opinion propaganda delivery system," and asked Stewart, "Where do you come up with this stuff?"
Stewart responded, "Uh, it's actually quite easy."
Later, when Wallace argued that a clip about Sarah Palin from the Daily Show was political commentary, Stewart told Wallace, "You're insane... Here's the difference between you and I. I'm a comedian first. My comedy is informed by an ideological background, there's no question about that. But the thing that you will never understand...is that Hollywood, yeah, they're liberal, but that's not their primary motivating force. I'm not an activist. I am a comedian."
"Do I want my voice heard?" Stewart continued later. "Absolutely, that's why I got into comedy. Am I an activist, in your mind? A partisan ideological activist?" Wallace responded, "Yeah." "Okay, then I disagree with you," Stewart said. "You can't understand, because of the world that you live in, that there is not a designed ideological agenda on my part to affect partisan change because that's the soup you swim in. And I appreciate that, I understand it. It reminds me of in ideological regimes, they can't understand that there is free media other places because they receive marching orders."
However, it was in a later exchange that Stewart got actually angry at Wallace, as he talked about what he called the misinformation that Fox News gave its viewers.
"The embarrassment is that I'm given credibility in this world because of the disappointment that the public has in what the news media does," he said.
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"I don't think our viewers are the least bit disappointed with us," Wallace said. "I think our viewers think, finally, they're getting somebody who tells the other side of the story."
"Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers?" Stewart shot back, his voice rising. "The most consistently misinformed? Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/19/jon-stewart-fox-news-sunday-video_n_879964.html
If only the news organizations could figure out that comedians and political satirists are just that; comedians and political satirists. Comedians can in some small ways effect change, public opinions and points of view, but they can never be our source for news and accurate information. That’s the problem with Fox and the others. They take people like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and the others way too seriously. They are afraid of them because through their comedy and satire these satirists point out the flaws, inconsistancies and outright misrepresentations that so-called legitimate news organizations serve up. Where is the integrity and professionalism? What was Chris Wallace doing when he decided to invite Jon Stewart to be on his show? The simple fact that Wallace thought Stewart was a worthwhile and important guest shows just how out-of-touch Fox is. Why would you legitimize a comedic satirist? Fox; you are so deep in your own bulls**t you don’t know what the real issues are. Someone should have stopped you from inviting Stewart; someone should have told you that he was better on late night talk shows than sitting across the desk form a legitimate newscaster. I do truly believe that you Mr. Wallace really are insane.
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