MSNBC and the rest are Fox News Lite. They don't want to take them down. They want to be them. It's penis envy on steroids.

Chris Matthews doesn't do reporting or news. I doubt there is anybody at MSNBC capable of the kind of work that is routine at Comedy Central. It is a matter of hiring professional reporters instead of Chris Matthews. That is a business judgment.

I don't consider the Daily Show to be 'fake' news. What's fake about it? Very rarely do they make stuff up out of whole cloth. This isn't the Onion. Usually, they report actual news and events of the day, then highlight and point out the idiocy, lies, and rank hypocrisy associated with it. It's quite easy to tell the spoofs or parodies from the real stuff and Stewart doesn't allow his interviewee to make outrageous false claims without being called on it. Unlike say, the "real" news outlets.

Thank god for Jon Stewart! I'd love to see his show expanded to an hour.

You know, on second thought there is a network that claims to have professional reporters. I think it is called CNN. I notice they didn't catch the Fox fake either. Hummmm.

Truly, no world class fool is more deserving of the title, Wanker, than Hannity. He owns absolutely every possible nuance of the word.

via Wikipedia:

The word has developed a metaphorical usage, in which to wank or to be a wanker implies egotistical and self-indulgent behaviour. This is the dominant meaning in Australia.

It is also used as a more general insult. This meaning is used in phrases like smug wanker, egotistical wanker or pretentious wanker.

Wanker is sometimes used to refer to a person in the same way as snob for subjects perceived as pretentious; for instance, wine wanker, fashion wanker, car wanker. This meaning is shown in "Whatareya?", a song by TISM, which contrasts "yobs" (uncouth working class) to "wankers" (which according to the context means pretentious intellectuals).

In the United States the current usage of the term is more in reference to the person being an idiot or moron, as opposed to the standard dick or jerk synonym in other countries

Didn't the "other netwotks" jump to defend Fox when Fox complained that the Whitehouse "took on" Fox? Most news is really nothing more than Entertainment Tonight.

The mockery, that's the key. And Stewart is one of the current "it" boys. He's cool and hip. When he fires an arrow it hurts. It's not that he's just reporting or calling them out, he's mocking with obvious contempt. It sort of marginalizes the subject.

The other news outlets are pretty much swimming in FOX News' dirty bath water. They all want a piece of what FOX has. That's why the news media rushed to FOX's defence in their dust-up with the White House.

To Chris at 10:11 -

Why would any news outlet want to be like Fox?

Fox is to news as fish is to monkey.

The Obama administration was correct - Fox is not a legitimate news outlet.

Was this "mistake" at Fox News made by the same producer caught on camera leading cheers at another tea party?

It is a matter of hiring professional reporters instead of Chris Matthews. That is a business judgment.

I would venture to say that you could hire between 5 and 10 REALLY COMPETENT journalists for the cost it takes to keep Chris Matthews on the air.

I think Stewart and Colbert are media critics first, and political commentators second. All done under the guise of comedy. They clearly have enough source material for both roles.

sean sean sean... you just dont know how to do it...

3 words:
Nur
em
berg

get ted turner to colorize some old rally film and you may have a reusable product for years to come...

inadvertently leading cheers at another tea party.

Hannity: It pains my vanity...

Wasn't there a study done a while back showing conservatives don't feel pain as readily as non-conservatives?

Be that as it may...

I don't doubt that conservatives find the act of apologizing extremely painful. The act runs smack into their sense of infallibility. Can anyone imagine O'Reilly apologizing? Or Bush? Or Cheney? Their brains don't work that way.

So on some level this was probably painful for Hannity.

But don't be deceived: His act of contrition has more to do with growing his market share than anything else. His tiny feral brain ran the numbers and the economic calculus that is his soul said: Better for me to apologize this time (god fucking damn it to liberal hell).

"Inadvertant" The Irony meter just blew off the scale...like the (D) behind the sex scandal Republicans ...oops our bad.

It was a good week for Comedy Central -- South Park just eviscerated Glenn Beck in one of its best takedowns of all time.

His act of contrition has more to do with growing his market share than anything else.

Yep. It's easier to lie, cheat, and deceive up front - then ask for forgiveness. The damage is done.

I would doubt very much that placing that crowd scene into the story was "inadvertent," I'm guessing that the large crowd was placed there deliberately. Those folks know where those clips come from.....

What gets me is that not that long ago all the other News organizations came to Fox News defense. They repayment for such support? To tarnish the whole legacy news media for such blatant, juvenile deceit.

"If major outlets are prepared to let a partisan outlet help drive the political discourse, maybe they shouldn't let the host of a fake-news show do all the heavy lifting?"

If they did the heavy lifting, they would draw the ire of FOX viewers. They believe it is much better for their credibility to allow themselves to be upstaged by a comedian.

Media outlets criticize other media outlets? Dahlings, it simply isn't done.

You know these assholes like hannity can't even apologize without lying. I.E. "inadvertent mistake".

The work Josh Marshall and his team did uncovering the US attorney scandal is another example of a story neglected by the press and TV news that, had they been doing their job, would been an obvious opportunity for old-fashioned journalism.

To be fair to Comedy Central, it's not just Stewart and Colbert. There's more insightful social commentary in an episode of South Park than a week of Hardball.

Secret Girlfriend, on the other hand, well, ... yeah.

Yeah, I'm just laughing at the obvious level of angst it required for Hannity to call something an "inadvertent mistake" when, at the time of airing he thought it was a masterful stroke of his own genius.

Although I am almost ashamed to admit it, I like Secret Girlfriend. Of course I am a 26 yr old white male, so I should like it. The perspective of the show is quite ingenious, even if they weren't the first to do it.

All of the so-called "news" networks have an Agenda with a capital A, be it kowtowing to their corporate masters/sponsors, or pushing a political POV of their owners.

They are editorial pages, spinning the 'facts' to a particular viewpoint.

Stewart's agenda is to make us laugh at our foibles, thereby attracting eyeballs, selling commercials, making money, having fun, and sleeping soundly.

Thank Heaven for Fox News. Everyone wondered what Jon Stewart would do for material once W was gone. Well, the screwballs at Fox dropped right in and filled the gap. At last, someone is turning the fire hose on Fox, and it's about damned time. Thank God for Jon Stewart.

Part of the problems is TV news culture. When do you ever see a TV news program correct a mistake? If you watch for long, you know they make errors all the time. They count on the ephemeral quality of TV; they don't count on people like Stewart & Co. archiving their shows and playing back their mistakes to them. There's no traditional culture on TV news of self-policing error.

Of course, who knows whether Hannity's show made a "mistake," per se. At least he apologized; I guess that's something.

Last night, Hannity apologized, conceded that he "screwed up" with an "inadvertent mistake."

So, replacing one lie with another, in other words.

When CBS misrepresented the facts during the 2004 election due to a failure to perform proper due diligence (i.e., negligence), Dan Rather was fired. Does anyone doubt that Hannity intentionally deceived. Should there not be an even greater outrage and an even greater demand that FN fire him?

Matt:

Asking why FOX doesn't behave like CBS is a lot like asking why the mob doesn't behave like the police. CBS News is an actual news organization; FOX isn't.

I really believe an ounce of satire is worth a hundred pounds of cold hard facts. I think this has always been the case. I am old enough to remember the Nixon era. Alot of people spent a great deal of time pointing out how corrupt and unhinged Nixon was, but I don't think most Americans got it until comedians, political cartoonists and musicians got into the act. Rich Little, Pat Oliphant, CSNY, Hunter S. Thompson, and perhaps even the artists and writers of Mad Magazine (now only a shadow of its former self) probably did more to undermine Nixon's imperial presidency than all of the investigative journalists combined.

Viva John Stewart.

He Came. He mocked. He conquered

Wait. Which fake news show do they mean?

"...swimming in FOX News' dirty bath water."

BEAUTIFUL! I'm planning to steal it. I'll credit you this one time, SaintZak, but after this, you're gonna have to follow me around with a copyright lawyer.

It's rare for me to comment just to say "Good job" or "I agree," but this article and several comments have prompted me to do exactly that.

Good job! (most of you)