The Daily Show gains legitimacy, while O'Reilly loses credibility...

Sitting on the Couch, Remote in Hand – (DCF) – Finally, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show crew get some recognition for their incredible work!

In a rare move, the website Media Matters has given space to cover a story that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart reported on!  (It can be read here: The Daily Show's Stewart responds to O'Reilly's misleading attack.)  Admittedly, the story was linked to Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and a story he “reported” during his television show, The O’Reilly Factor, as well as his radio program, The Radio Factor.

In the reports, O’Reilly, referring to Comedy Central as “Secular Central” (Comedy Central carries The Daily Show), explained that Stewart and company were among those that were waging a “war” against Christmas and, thus, Christianity.  To prove his point, he ran the following clip from the show, filed by Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee:

SAMANTHA BEE: Christmas: It's the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday. That way, Christians can go to their services and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of separation of church and state.

Funny?  Absolutely.  I laughed.  Loud.  There’s just one problem with O’Reilly using that clip: It’s a year old.  Even worse, O’Reilly told his radio audience that it was from the day before, and implied the same thing on his television show.

How does Media Matters know that it was an old clip?  Because Bee is currently about eight months pregnant, and was not in the clip.  Of course, The Daily Show being what it is, they didn’t actually point this out.  Instead, Bee came out wearing the same clothes she was wearing in the clip, although the blouse she wore didn’t come all the way down to cover her now very large belly, and pointed out that the highlights in her hair are different now than they were in the clip.

Finishing out his report of O’Reilly’s report, Stewart made an offer to O’Reilly, stating that he would be happy to play the part of the “bad guy”.  He went on to say the following:

Jon Stewart: If Bill O'Reilly needs to have an enemy, needs to feel persecuted, you know what? Here's my Kwanzaa gift to him. Are you ready? All right. I'm your enemy. Make me your enemy. I, Jon Stewart, hate Christmas, Christians, Jews, morality, and I will not rest until every year families gather to spend December 25th together at Osama's homo-bortion-pot-and-commie-jizzporium.

So, it looks like the fight is on, if O’Reilly has the testicular fortitude to take Stewart up on his offer.  (I doubt it.)

Oddly enough, it also gives The Daily Show a bit of legitimacy, being recognized by a website that monitors news shows to make sure they’re being honest.  What next, you ask?  Well, it’s not exactly next, as such.  Rather, it’s more like previously.

On the same subject (O’Reilly and The Daily Show, for those of you who aren’t paying attention), I recalled reading about a survey that was done last year, concerning the intelligence (or lack thereof) of people who watch The Daily Show.  I cannot recall where I read it or heard it, but I remembered it saying something about Daily Show viewers being more informed and more intelligent than viewers of Fox.  After a bit of research, I couldn’t find an exact quote, but I did find something similar:

"Daily Show" viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education, while O'Reilly's audience is only 24 percent more likely to have that much schooling.

Plus, the network noted, "Daily Show" viewers are 26 percent more likely to have a household income more than $100,000, while O'Reilly's audience is only 11 percent more likely to make that much money.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/28/comedy.politics

Comedy Central also touted a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey, which said young viewers of “The Daily Show” were more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don’t.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6117542

For those who would like a look at the actual polling report, it can be read here: http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/naes/2004_03_late-night-knowledge-2_9-21_pr.pdf

So, the bottom line is, O’Reilly had better watch out.  Stewart, because he’s a comedian, doesn’t have to pull punches.  O’Reilly, in theory, does because he’s supposed to be a journalist.  (Of course, the fact that he’s on the same network that thinks Sean Hannity and Geraldo Rivera are journalists doesn’t really do a lot for his credibility.)  There would be no contest if Stewart decided to drop the gloves, to use a hockey analogy.  And, oh, how I hope it happens.

All the best,
Derek
(DCF)