Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz reported Tuesday that Comedy Central's Jon Stewart told reporters at a University of Denver breakfast that Fox's fair-and-balanced slogan is an insult "to people with brains" and that only "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace "saves that network from slapping on a bumper sticker...Barack Obama could cure cancer and they'd figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster."
[F-BOMB UPDATE: On Tuesday afternoon, Kurtz relayed that "I reported that he called the fair-and-balanced claim an insult to people with brains. What he actually said was that it was 'a [blank] you to people with brains.'"]
The rapid-response team at Fox quickly replied to Kurtz: "Jon's clearly out of touch," citing a Pew Research Center study showing the network has the most balanced audience in cable news, 39 percent Republicans and 33 percent Democrats. "But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon, as evidenced by the crash-and-burn ratings of this year's Oscars telecast."
Stewart also proclaimed "I'm stunned to see Karl Rove on a news network as an analyst," Stewart, who’s admitted voting for John Kerry in 2004 (and who could forget his unfunny God-I-admire-you interview with Kerry that year?), said he didn't see CNN's James Carville, the former Bill Clinton aide, in the same category because "I don't think he's being passed off as a sage."
What Stewart means here is like any other Bush-loathing liberal, he’s stunned that Rove isn’t in jail due to their heavy-breathing ardor for "justice" in the Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame book-and-a-movie-deal drama.
Update 13:59 | Matthew Sheffield. It's also odd that Stewart seems so upset about Rove considering the much higher number of Democrats who have transitioned to TV news such as Chris Matthews, George Stephanopolous and the late Tim Russert.
