Over the weekend, Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz and guest David Zurawik criticized The Daily Show's Jon Stewart as biased in favor of the Obama administration. Let that settle in: A host and guest on Fox News criticized someone else for being biased.
Stewart did not hold back in his response on Monday, showing some of his tougher moments against the Obama administration while exposing times Fox News actively helped the Bush administration and conservative causes.
"Your hypocrisy isn't a bug in the Fox model," Stewart said. "It's the feature. Your job is to discredit any source of criticism that might hurt the conservative brand by angrily holding them to standards you yourselves jettisoned in your news network's mission statement."
He added, "My hunch is this show's been harder on the Obama administration and this president per capita than you ever were in your eight years of Bush fingerbanging."
The reel walked through all sorts of moments of The Daily Show's history. At one point, Stewart challenged former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to sign up for Obamacare through the troubled Healthcare.gov site before he downloaded "every movie ever made." And many times, Fox News acknowledged these moments, latching on to the comedian's criticisms as an opportunity to lambaste or mock Obama.
Stewart also exposed moments Fox News was supportive of the Bush administration, including Fox News president Roger Ailes's reported letter to President George W. Bush explaining that the American public would be patient with the war on terror "as long as they were convinced that Bush was using the harshest measures possible."
"How's that motherfucking taste?" Stewart yelled at the end of the segment, while imitating a grenade toss. "Adios, motherfuckers!"
