This was a good segment. The Newt and Hannity never even got close to the facts. With Hannity, it seemed to be a zealous ignorance and with the Newt simple lying. They both excel in these conducts.

Newt and Hannity all of Fox News. This is like saying Comedy Central are full of Progressive Idiots simply because Jon Stewart is on that network…

This is just another attempt by the Progressives to try to silence any *group* of people whom they disagree with solely because of a few extremist within the group…

Again, Progressives can’t seem to distinguish the difference between news and opinion journalism

Again, Progressives can’t seem to distinguish the difference between news and opinion journalism

There is an old saying, “You’re entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts”. So even if Newt and Hannity are expressing their opinions; those opinions should be based on facts, not distortions and falsehoods.

@JamesA1102

No arguments there. This is not the first time Hannity have done this.

Of course, let’s not pretend that Hannity (or Republicans) are the only group that’s doing this…

Jon Stewart never feels the need to report the facts.

Well, so far 2 posters have called hannity and newt liars (james and faux), of course no proof was offered. LOL!

@felixw

actually, nice points. Stewart continues to beat the drum of how people like Hannity / Oreilly / Beck / Fox News disguises what he calls “Mis-truths” as “opinion Journalism”. He is equally guilty of disguising “mis-truths” as “comedy”.

There is really not much difference between Hannity and Stewart…one calls it opinion journalism, the other calls it comedy. Sometimes they are right, other times, they spin and mischaracterize…

@Olby

You may be right. I’ll admit that I do have a bias against Hannity because he’s always about Republicans good, Democrats bad…even when Republicans behave badly…

I have the same issues with people who believes Democrats can never be wrong, even when they’re wrong…

In this context, Stewart fits in perfectly as one of the above; except he is funny at times…

Typical Obama. Here is my position but I can change it at any time, just like he did with his domestic positions.

Of course, let’s not pretend that Hannity (or Republicans) are the only group that’s doing this…

I never did.

Well, so far 2 posters have called hannity and newt liars (james and faux), of course no proof was offered.

The proof was offered in clip. That was the point of it.

But JAMES – True American Patriots don’t WATCH Jon SPEWart’s clips!!1 We already KNOW he is lying, so WHY BOTHER?!1 Seeing clips of FOX NEWS (The Most Powerful Name in News) personalities doing UNETHICAL things will only serve to CONFUSE and INFURIATE us!!1 And while I usually LOVE being ANGRY, it has to be for the RIGHT REASONS!!1

In defense of Hannity (not saying I agree with it…coz many times, I don’t)…”Hannity’s America” segment of his show often times presents the “facts” as well, as spoken directly by the politicians themselves. sometimes, I find his segment borderline very closely to Michael Moore’s “Facts” about GWBush in Farenheit 911….which is out of context and hogwash…

This said, I won’t put too much stock into Stewart’s “Facts” either…his ratings goes up when he spins his “facts” to the extreme…

I’ll say again, there’s nothing different between what Stewart is doing, and what Hannity often does on his show. Occasionally, they’ll have good solid points. But more often than not, they’re just spin…

Hannity is on a witch hunt…. and since he can no longer come up with anything viable, he resorts to lying……oooppps….. i mean….. misstating the facts. The sad thing is all the WASPS buy his BS.

“I’ll say again, there’s nothing different between what Stewart is doing, and what Hannity often does on his show. Occasionally, they’ll have good solid points. But more often than not, they’re just spin…”

Jon Stewart is on a comedy channel doing comedy. He doesn’t want people taking him seriously.

Sean Hannity’s on a purported news channel telling what he considers to be the facts to people too gulliable and stupid enough to know otherwise. He wants people to take him seriously.

Big. Difference.

You’re welcome.

Jon Stewart is on the comedy channel disguising his version of facts as comedy; Hannity is on Fox disguising his version of facts as opinion journalism…

No difference

thank you

Hannity is on a “News” channel. If they wanted to call Fox News “Fox Opinion” or “Fox Comedy” there would be no difference. John Stewart is not on “Comedy News” or “News Central.”

Big. Difference.

Double thank you.

So, ABC, CBS, NBC should not have news on their stations because they are dominated by soap operas, reality shows, and game shows?

If Stewart REALLY wants his audience to believe he is just doing a comedy act, then why does he do it in a *NEWS* format? Why not just do a stand up like Leno, Letterman, Kimmel, etc..?

To claim that Stewart doesn’t believe he is reporting his version of ‘News” in a stealth format is being Naive in this debate. He knows he can influence minds with his opinion comedy journalism just as well as Hannity can do so with his opinion talk show journalism

NO DIFFERENCE

Triple Thank You

>Well, so far 2 posters have called hannity and newt liars (james and faux), of course no proof was offered. LOL!

Did you see the segment? It was a complete smackdown.

The only thing Hannity “Smacks Down” is his viewers intellect. Anyone with an IQ over room temperature knows that Stewart is completely right.

…and for anyone to “would NOT take” Stewart seriously because he is, after all, a comedian making comedy, what then does Stewart being right mean necessarily?

see the point I’m trying to make?

“If Stewart REALLY wants his audience to believe he is just doing a comedy act, then why does he do it in a *NEWS* format? Why not just do a stand up like Leno, Letterman, Kimmel, etc..?”

I think you answered your own question, there are people like Leno, letterman, kimmel, ferguson, lopez, etc, etc all doing that already. There is virtually no show doing satire/parody and concluding the show with a 5-6 minute interesting discussion with authors, media persons, scientists, etc. TDS is the news format because it is so ridiculously easy to mock the news—Just look how much we do it here.

With that said, Stewart isn’t news. You don’t get the story and he is breaking down news stories into little bits and finding the humor in that. As previous comments have stated, Hannity does something quite similar. I agree… so does Beck, Bill O’, and other personalities on FNC. Same can be said with Keith, Rachel, etc. That’s fine… but just know that Stewart is not news. He is comedy first and foremost and to consider him news is absurd.

@bias-media

Stewart being right means nothing! When a comedian smacks down a network…other media outlets like to laugh at the smackdown. They do pieces like the one written here today talking about Stewart “doing news” so they can avoid doing any journalism.

Ok; so I’m getting into a gray area of debate that I often like to stay away from, but in this case, I think is necessary to help make my point…

For anyone who doesn’t read the news, watch the news, or keep up with the news, and, lets say they only watch the Daily Show (or only watch Hannity, for that matter), the Daily Show IS the news to them.

to learn about something you already know isn’t “News”; but to learn about something you didn’t know about before, that’s “News”; whether you get that from Hannity or Stewart is not the point (in this context of what is “news” to an individual who doesn’t watch or keep up with real news).

This said, back to the black and white world…I’ll say again, Stewart knows he influences a segment of our population; Hannity knows he influences a segment of our population. Call it comedy, call it talk show, call it whatever you want. What they present, *some* people believe. This article itself is a case in point.

To put it in another way…what if Hannity’s show was on Comedy Central; and let’s say he draws the same amount of audience on Comedy Central…thus, giving Progressives fits because he’s all about Republican good; Democrats bad. Does that make his method more legit? Would less of his followers take him seriously? (I don’t believe so)

So if Stewart being right means nothing, why do we even bother having a discussion? Who can say Hannity is not wrong? (after all, Stewart being right means nothing)???

@bias-media

To learn about something you didn’t know already is not news, its called information. When I read a textbook, I’m not reading the “news”. I understand your point and why this gray area is hard to debate. By calling TDS news, it is essentially stating that it is a news organization and its just far from truth.

You’re absolutely right! We shouldn’t be having this discussion. Mediaite just likes to put other peoples work out there so people can talk about it and think they are providing a service critiquing the media. They are supposed to be doing the media-analysis, yet I hardly see it.

Your senario is that Hannity’s show was straight up same as it was on FNC and placed on Comedy Central, and he pulls the same viewership totals—but he could hide behind the Comedy Central name? Well, he wouldn’t be doing comedy for one–so I would be dumbfounded. Would less followers take him seriously? You set that question up for yourself…he didn’t lose any viewers so obviously less followers took him seriously. That’s the cool thing about hypotheticals….

Stewart being right means nothing because the main point to tuning into his show is to watch satire and get a chuckle or two. I think anyone with fact-checking ability could say Hannity is not wrong, is wrong, or is offering an opinion that is uncheckable factually.

@marcus

fair analysis.

…moving on to other news of the day…

Stewart owns Fox.

=) You too Bias-Media.

I think ultimately what we should take from this is that Hannity and Jon should both try their damnest to get the facts correct, then do their analysis and opinion stuff based on solid facts. Both sometimes fail to do that and a media critique site like *cough* this one */cough* should fact-check and offer true criticism rather than being a news aggregator and posting clips of other persons offering media criticism.

keep up the good work Jon!

Fox Not News Channel has never felt the need to report the facts. It’s like a whole staff of Lord Haw Haws broadcasting from a dark dank place between Roger Ailes’ ample ass cheeks. There you’ll find Tyler Durdin tying cherry pits with his tongue.

I will explain the difference,
1. FOX promos stating FOX news “most trusted name in news” shows Hannity, its his picture when NEWS is shown, if its only opinion then do not totally mislead its viewers. Besides, it may be opinion but I would hope there is some decency in obtaining facts to bury someone he doesnt like or disagrees with
2. The reason many TDS true believers accept what Stewart says is that he backs up his statements with actual video so it isnt made up, if the clip from NPR is a total lie you can bet everything FOX would have destroyed him in a heartbeat. If that was the case there would have been specifics during Hannity, where is anything to back up his words besides trying to scare anyone watching into listening, a video, a copy of the treaty, anything besides “he is making us unsafe” etc etc? While I do watch Hannity occasionally, I very very rarely see him show some footage backing up his statements, that means actual footage backing his position. (There is a great edit of JS on global warming, check it out on Fox & Friends then watch the whole clip, edited so it looks like he is saying the opposite of whats said on the show).

I watch JS and Bill, I am entertained but when either of them backs up what they say I do pay attention, comedy opinion whatever if its facts then its facts. I dont worry to much about someone flat out lying for 2 reasons, if I have doubts I can find the truth in about 5 minutes on the web and the biggest, if JS or Bill were saying huge flat out lies there are people that would call them out using FACTS and PROVING it without a second of hesitation. By the way saying someone is a liar don’t make it so.

PS some advice, if you really like the person your watching check out someone he doesnt agree with it may just surprise you but, if you do only do it with an open mind.

Oh I forgot this, it definitely skewers my trust of anything FOX http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html

I like to watch Fox news channel the most for the reason that it gives voice to people who can’t get on other networks and its entire editorial philosophy revolves around the idea that the mainstream media.
drive a man wild

Hannity’s show is opinion, not a news cast. He spins right, Stewart spins left. To each his own. As for Hannity ‘lying’ about things, at least he has on people from the left to disagree with him. Try finding a dissenting opinion on Olbermann’s show.

Jon Stewart, the quintessential moron. How in the hell does that idiot stay employed?

“Writer”: correction — Hannity’s show is OPINION disguiesed as “news”, and that’s where it all gets sticky, confusing. Confusing especially to those watching, who believe that ALL other media outlets are not to be trusted because ALL the other media outlets are a bunch of “librul” liars. THAT, my friend, is the problem. And that’s why TDS is so effective at smacking Faux News around. And that’s why losers, like “pyrope”, and “olby sucks”, and “facebook user”, and several others who post on here look so damn foolish. Especially “pyrope”. He’s obviously on Faux-crack.

This Bozo is using Fox News to get ratings for his own silly show. Can you imagine him devoting as much time to CNN or NBC? I’ve said it before, he would give one of his testicles to have a 30 minute show on Fox News. HA! Never happen! Fox has QUALITY people, with the exception of a couple of screwballs like Geraldo and a certain blonde Bimbo who hangs out with scum like Howard Stern. Poor Jon Stewart.

Scary !!! FYI, the rest of the planet are more scared of the american republicans, which represent only a meagre 2.2% of world population than of Global warming/ terrorism/ etc…..
Sadly, though i don’t agree that idiocy is a republican trait, the first picture of the red side of america the world sees is FOX NEWS, Sarah Palin……which generally, after listening to what they have to say, get compared/refered to as a cross between Sloth (from the Goonies) and Kid Shellen (from Cat Balou).

However funny (and i kind of agree to a certain extent) this sounds, the reason it’s scary, is that the USA is the biggest milatary and economical force on the planet and are now starting to be challenged by China which scares these cowboy republicans shitless.
Taking all this in account, no wonder the world is scared at the idea of america giving the reigns of the country back to the republicans.

Your country is so much greater than this. I’m an optimist and think you have pointed back in the right direction again with barack Obama (eventhough i don’t think he gets all his decisons right). There is a hell of a long way to go yet but you seem on the right track. long may it continue.

The Real Royal King says:
April 9, 2010 at 9:40 am

This was a good segment. The Newt and Hannity never even got close to the facts. With Hannity, it seemed to be a zealous ignorance and with the Newt simple lying. They both excel in these conducts.

Well said, Royal, well said.

Fixed Noise is nothing but right-wing propaganda and it’s nearly impossible to discern their “opinion” shows form their “news” shows as they consider themselves an “entertainment” network in the 1st place. John Stewart’s show is satire and it’s easy taking aim at Fox as they have a blatant disregard for the facts or even history.

Funny, Stewart doesn’t seem at all concerned about MSNBC’s bias.

I could reply to a number of the other comments here, but I’m a couple months overdue and I expect they would never see them to reply. That said, I’ll just have to go with the one that shares my name.

@Sean68,

Clearly you don’t really watch the Daily Show, else you’d have become intimately familiar with how rigorously they chastise every major news network. From ABC to Fox News, it’s covered. There is, however, a reason why they only cover Fox’s bias: It is the most watched news network in the whole of the United States.

Moving on… The whole reason why the Daily Show drills the Fox network, beyond its popularity, is the fact that its opinion shows are misleadingly aligned with their news programming. An intelligent viewer is capable of extricating one from the other, but at the end of the day, they are pretty much the same in the eyes of the average viewer.

The Daily Show is certainly guilty of Liberal bias, unquestionably, but they are just as apt to attack a Democrat as a Republican for inconsistencies and will even, at times, come to the defence of Republican politicians. The major difference between Jon Stewart and people like Hannity, however, is the weight of influence they exert. Jon Stewart is an entertainer first and his fan-base is generally familiar with the satirical element of the show. Anyone who watched the Daily Show at its inception would realize that its current news format was around from day one; the political aspect was an after-thought when Jon Stewart was introduced as host.

They are not news, they do not make themselves out to be news. Fox news relies, in part, on the deceptive notion that Hannity and Beck are agents of news, providing a reliable, if editorial, take on news stories. It’s never meant to make you laugh, whereas that is the point of the Daily Show to the exclusion of all else. They are fundamentally different despite any superficial similarities.

In the era of Reagan’s America was much better. “We are in a very different time” – it is truth.