# Is Fox and Friends really as dim-witted as Jon Stewart makes it out to be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286 "2010-08-24T13:43:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/41 "2010-08-24T21:24:17Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > It’s just her face, but [here she is as Miss America](http://www.kevincharnas.com/uploaded_images/gretchen-carlson-774330.jpg). She looks like a blonde Suzanne Sugarbaker. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/42 "2010-08-24T21:25:12Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > It’s just her face, but [here she is as Miss America](http://www.kevincharnas.com/uploaded_images/gretchen-carlson-774330.jpg). > > eta: oh my god, wikipedia says that as a child, she was babysat by Michele Bachmann. That explains a lot. Meh. ---
**Author:** ![Camus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba8739/32.png) [@Camus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/43 "2010-08-24T22:48:12Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > But, what they failed to mention, as Jon pointed out, was said financier’s name, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns seven percent of Fox News. Just to nitpick, the Saudi prince owns seven percent of News Corp., which in turn owns Fox News. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/44 "2010-08-24T22:52:18Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > > [@Kyla](#): > > > > It’s just her face, but [here she is as Miss America](http://www.kevincharnas.com/uploaded_images/gretchen-carlson-774330.jpg). > > > > eta: oh my god, wikipedia says that as a child, she was babysat by Michele Bachmann. That explains a lot. > > Meh. You’re much, much too kind. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/45 "2010-08-24T23:39:44Z")
> [@silk1976](#): > > Funny thing is I saw the OP, and figured ‘F&F probably isn’t quite _that_ dumb - I love the Daily Show, but I’m sure it also takes things out of context’. > > And then I read the comments here and realized that maybe Jon Stewart is more on target than I thought. Sombody correctly points out in the GD thread that the comments about the Kingdom Foundation come in at the last 10 seconds of another discussion, so it’s not sas if they were focusing on this and avoided the name. It’s still a conspicuous ommission though IMO. Still Fox doing it’s usual dance of distorting the facts for profit. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/46 "2010-08-25T00:29:10Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > It’s just her face, but [here she is as Miss America](http://www.kevincharnas.com/uploaded_images/gretchen-carlson-774330.jpg). > > eta: oh my god, wikipedia says that as a child, she was babysat by Michele Bachmann. That explains a lot. Jesus christ, someone take away her makeup until she promises to stop diving headfirst into it. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/47 "2010-08-25T02:17:10Z")
Fox and Friends is lame. They try to be funny and light, but they cover the same hard news stories as the other daytime shows do. So you might have some idiotic joking around (including, ugh, sound effects) followed by a report on a bombing in Iraq that killed American soldiers. This causes a severe case of mood whiplash that it never recovers from. But in all fairness, The Daily Show is cherry picking the stupidest comments to make fun of. They’re comedians. It’s what they do. Joel McHale does the same thing on The Soup, and that show isn’t political. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/48 "2010-08-25T04:29:14Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > The Daily Show is cherry picking the stupidest comments to make fun of. I’m strangely not under the impression that Fox News’ less accessible cherries pose a significantly greater challenge. In fact, I could quite readily believe that TDS has _too much_ material to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/49 "2010-08-25T04:53:09Z")
What I wonder is why “real” news networks don’t take on the Talal hypocrisy. This really is- ahem- _news_worthy and should be more widely known. Is it professional courtesy that Anderson Cooper or 60 Minutes doesn’t make a big deal of this? (For Larry King it’s of course because he can’t work in a Jackie Gleason story or ask about a new movie and for Nancy Grace it’s because Talal isn’t a suspect in the disappearance of any young white girls.) Fox News affects how idiots vote and is the mouthpiece of the neocons and they’re in bed with the same people- not just general “Saudi businessman” but the same _individual_- that they accuse of funding terrorism. This actually is big news and the Dems would exploit it and make it better known if they had balls, and it’s uncovered on a comedy show. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/50 "2010-08-25T05:04:27Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > What I wonder is why “real” news networks don’t take on the Talal hypocrisy. This really is- ahem- _news_worthy and should be more widely known. Is it professional courtesy that Anderson Cooper or 60 Minutes doesn’t make a big deal of this? (For Larry King it’s of course because he can’t work in a Jackie Gleason story or ask about a new movie and for Nancy Grace it’s because Talal isn’t a suspect in the disappearance of any young white girls.) Fox News affects how idiots vote and is the mouthpiece of the neocons and they’re in bed with the same people- not just general “Saudi businessman” but the same _individual_- that they accuse of funding terrorism. This actually is big news and the Dems would exploit it and make it better known if they had balls, and it’s uncovered on a comedy show. Assume NewsCorp wished to change this situation – to “get out of bed” with Talal. What steps should they take? Be specific. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/51 "2010-08-25T05:16:47Z")
There’s nothing wrong with them being in bed with him. That’s the point. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/52 "2010-08-25T05:31:02Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … This actually is big news and the Dems would exploit it and make it better known if they had balls, and it’s uncovered on a comedy show. I’ve done a double-take like this before, where I say **“Wha…? Why are the _comedians_ doing the job that the _journalists_ should be doing?”** ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/53 "2010-08-25T06:14:06Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > What I wonder is why “real” news networks don’t take on the Talal hypocrisy. This really is- ahem- _news_worthy and should be more widely known. Is it professional courtesy that Anderson Cooper or 60 Minutes doesn’t make a big deal of this? (For Larry King it’s of course because he can’t work in a Jackie Gleason story or ask about a new movie and for Nancy Grace it’s because Talal isn’t a suspect in the disappearance of any young white girls.) Fox News affects how idiots vote and is the mouthpiece of the neocons and they’re in bed with the same people- not just general “Saudi businessman” but the same _individual_- that they accuse of funding terrorism. This actually is big news and the Dems would exploit it and make it better known if they had balls, and it’s uncovered on a comedy show. > > Assume NewsCorp wished to change this situation – to “get out of bed” with Talal. > > What steps should they take? Be specific. Huh? Why should I give a damn how or whether they cut ties with him? That’s kind of like asking “What steps should [whatever anti-gay public figure has gotten caught in a gay sex scandal most recently] take to not be gay? Be specific”; being gay isn’t what he’s being condemned for, it’s preaching against what he practices. Fox _is_ in bed with bin Talal and at the same time they’re calling people who have financial dealings with him terrorists but deliberately withholding the information that they have financial dealings with him. The point is that they are hypocrites at best and, using their own logic, possibly terrorists who are funding the "Ground Zero Mosque"ington Coat Factory. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/54 "2010-08-25T06:30:23Z")
> [@digs](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > … This actually is big news and the Dems would exploit it and make it better known if they had balls, and it’s uncovered on a comedy show. > > I’ve done a double-take like this before, where I say **“Wha…? Why are the _comedians_ doing the job that the _journalists_ should be doing?”** Amen to that. I realize this is CS, so I’ll keep my ranting to a minimum- but goddamnit: I wish the dems would just grow some fucking balls. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/55 "2010-08-25T06:47:46Z")
> [@digs](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > … This actually is big news and the Dems would exploit it and make it better known if they had balls, and it’s uncovered on a comedy show. > > I’ve done a double-take like this before, where I say **“Wha…? Why are the _comedians_ doing the job that the _journalists_ should be doing?”** It’s Jon Stewart. Unfortunately, there is no one else like the guy. He’s unique. Stewart’s politics are a little left of mine, but the guy is brilliant. Him and his writers _are_ actually pretty damn good journalists, let’s not deny that. They have a liberal bias, sure, but they don’t deny it and they get the facts right. I guess what I am saying is that _The Daily Show_, as helmed by Jon Stewart, isn’t just comedy - they do news pretty well, too. That’s not an indictment of the other news media, it’s just a compliment to Stewart. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/56 "2010-08-25T09:19:46Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > > [@digs](#): > > > > I’ve done a double-take like this before, where I say **“Wha…? Why are the _comedians_ doing the job that the _journalists_ should be doing?”** > > It’s Jon Stewart. Unfortunately, there is no one else like the guy. He’s unique. > > Stewart’s politics are a little left of mine, but the guy is brilliant. Him and his writers _are_ actually pretty damn good journalists, let’s not deny that. They have a liberal bias, sure, but they don’t deny it and they get the facts right. Ironically, it’s because they’re comedians that this works - they’re not pushing a political agenda so much as pointing out how ridiculous politicians and the other media are. Their whole schtick works on the “it’s funny because it’s true” principle - if they just made up stuff willy-nilly, it wouldn’t be nearly as funny. Much of their best stuff consists of letting their targets hang themselves with their own words. TDS have had no problem lampooning both sides of the political spectrum as long as it’s funny - after taking on Fox, Stewart was making Blago squirm in his chair. That Fox has proved such a rich vein for comedic mining is less an indicator of the TDS liberal bias (though it clearly exists) than of Fox’s persistently ludicrous behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/57 "2010-08-25T12:21:25Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > > [@Bricker](#): > > > > Assume NewsCorp wished to change this situation – to “get out of bed” with Talal. > > > > What steps should they take? Be specific. > > Huh? Why should I give a damn how or whether they cut ties with him? That’s kind of like asking “What steps should [whatever anti-gay public figure has gotten caught in a gay sex scandal most recently] take to not be gay? Be specific”; being gay isn’t what he’s being condemned for, it’s preaching against what he practices. Fox _is_ in bed with bin Talal and at the same time they’re calling people who have financial dealings with him terrorists but deliberately withholding the information that they have financial dealings with him. The point is that they are hypocrites at best and, using their own logic, possibly terrorists who are funding the "Ground Zero Mosque"ington Coat Factory. Because there’s more than one way of being in bed. You and I may find ourselves trapped in an avalanche and forced to share a bed to avoid freezing to death, but it won’t be the same kind of bed-sharing that is typically undertaken for more… er… fun and recreational purposes. It is even so with this situation. You lump together all financial dealings as though they are identical. But in the case of NewsCorp, their “in bed with” amounts to the fact that the guy called his broker and said, “Buy me a couple million shares of NewsCorp.” NewsCorp has no qualification test that a prospective stock owner must pass. Indeed, being a publicly traded corporation, they can’t. _NewsCorp’s financial association with Talal is not the product of a single voluntary act on the part of NewsCorp, nor could they sever the relationship if they wished to do so._ Is this also true of the funding of the "Ground Zero Mosque"ington Coat Factory? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/58 "2010-08-25T12:45:57Z")
Poor NewsCorp…trapped in a loveless financial relationship with an evil madrassa-funding Arab. How hard it must be for these defenders of liberty to tolerate his presence at their shareholder meetings. You can [see the barely-suppressed revulsion in Rupert Murdoch’s eyes](http://www.mideast-times.com/photos/big/leftpanel_alwaleed.JPG) as he is forced to deal with such a clearly reprehensible individual. **What insidious force must the prince have used to force News Corporation to also buy a 9% share in the prince’s own media company Rotana?** Does this man’s treachery know no bounds? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/59 "2010-08-25T13:03:25Z")
Hey. Maybe that picture was taken after they were both in an avalance or something. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286/60 "2010-08-25T13:30:44Z")
> [@Camus](#): > > > [@joebuck20](#): > > > > But, what they failed to mention, as Jon pointed out, was said financier’s name, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns seven percent of Fox News. > > Just to nitpick, the Saudi prince owns seven percent of News Corp., which in turn owns Fox News. Sorry. You’re right. My bad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-fox-and-friends-really-as-dim-witted-as-jon-stewart-makes-it-out-to-be/551286.md?page=4)