[TDS] MSNBC the new FOX news?

[Lonestar]

Blurb about recent John Stewart piece

Stewart: How MSNBC can take 'mouthpiece' reins from FoxDavid Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday December 2, 2008


One result of an Obama presidency is that Fox News will no longer be able to maintain its accustomed role as administration mouthpiece, and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart wondered on Monday what it might do instead.

He found the answer in a montage used by Fox to urge its viewers, "As your world changes, stay with Fox." Stewart summarized the flow of alarming images in the spot by saying, "We will protect you from raging fire, Iranian nutjobs, angry gay-lovers and the Jew whispering to the black man. Think of us as cable tv's panic room!"

Stewart also raised the question of which network could replace Fox in the mouthpiece role, and the obvious answer was MSNBC. However, Stewart cautioned the MSNBC bosses, "If you want to be the new administration's news source of choice, you're going to need foot soldiers."

Stewart's first example was Fox's Bill O'Reilly. "You're going to need a freakishly over-sized ruddy-faced Irish multi-millionaire, still clinging to his blue-collar roots," Stewart explained, "and it helps if he's quick to anger."

Stewart handily matched that job description with footage of MSNBC's Chris Matthews berating a conservative radio talk show host.

"But MSNBC," continued Stewart, "what do you have in a partisan ideologue who fears for the world if it's in any way touched by the hands of his political enemies?"

To answer that, he juxtaposed clips of Fox's Sean Hannity telling Karl Rove, "This is a clear and present danger to the United States," with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann declaiming about something being "a clear and present danger to the peace of this nation."

"He's perfect!" squealed Stewart. "I'll take two!"

"All right, MSNBC, you really want to do this?" Stewart continued. "You're going to need a token from the other side of the aisle."

Stewart then drew a not-very-close comparison between Sean Hannity's former sidekick and token liberal Alan Colmes and MSNBC's conservative host Joe Scarborough. "You gave him his own show?" Stewart exclaimed. "He's supposed to be a token, you idiots!"

But even Stewart had trouble finding any Fox equivalent to MSNBC's "complex, eloquent, even-tempered" Rachel Maddow. After flipping through images of a couple of Fox's blond female hosts, he finally settled on Steve Doocy, commenting, "There's my girl!"


This video is from Comedy Central's The Daily Show, broadcast Dec. 1, 2008

Interesting. I happen wto agree with some of the assesments, but I wonder if the TDS just did this to shut some people up about them being "too Liberal".

[The Original Nex]

I'm of the opinion that they did it simply because it was funny. TDS is unabashedly liberal and they don't care what the hemmers and hawers think of them.

[Vympel]

Stewart handily matched that job description with footage of MSNBC's Chris Matthews berating a conservative radio talk show host.

TDS was really reaching with that clip. That was one of Chris Matthews' best performances ever - that was where said idiot conservative radio gasbag was trotting out the old "just like 1938" comparison (i.e. appeasement) re: "talking to our enemies". Matthews' was fully justified in trying to get that snake to point out just what Chamberlain did in 1938, because it was to make the point that what Obama (IIRC) was proposing was nothing like it. It also was funny that aforesaid gasbag clearly didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

[Yogi]

Textbook Golden Mean bullshit. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Slacker]

...It was the Daily Show being funny. Might be overthinking it a bit there, Yogi.

[Crown]

Oh come on people, touch yourselves until you find your funny bone, and then poke it to get a reaction, that clip (scroll down) was funny as hell. And frankly while I'm over the moon with Obama, lets all hope that the MSM realises that it's not meant to be part of the Department of Information.

[Rogue 9]

Interesting. I happen wto agree with some of the assesments, but I wonder if the TDS just did this to shut some people up about them being "too Liberal".

I doubt it. In any case, it's hardly the first time they've skewered the left; they absolutely roasted Code Pink for picketing the Marine recruitment center in Berkeley a few months ago.

[Glocksman]

His characterization of Rachel Maddow is pretty much spot on.
While I find myself freqently disagreeing with her, I don't despise her the way I do Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, or Randi Rhodes.

She's civil, lets her guests have their say, and is polite.
Cap that off with being sharp as a tack and I'd fall in love with her if she wasn't both decades younger than I am and a lesbian.

Her Air America show is worth listening to if you can hear it in your area.