30 most scorching Jon Stewart takedowns of Republicans
By Jeremy Dick
8. Stewart fact checks Fox News
In a 2011 interview with Fox personality Chris Wallace, Jon Stewart claimed that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of them all, according to “every poll”. In response, the fact checking website PolitiFact investigated and discovered that Fox wasn’t at the bottom of every poll, technically making Stewart’s exaggerated statement incorrect.
On The Daily Show, Stewart admitted his mistake and owned up to it. But he wasn’t through yet. He issues the following statement before moving on to one of his best moments from the show’s history:
“I defer to their judgment and apologize for my mistake. To not do so would be irresponsible. … that would undermine the very integrity and credibility that I work so hard to pretend to care about. Hey, I wonder, you know what? I know PolitiFact checks mostly political statements from politicians and such, but has PolitiFact ever checked Fox for false statements? I’m hearing they have.”
What happens next, as you could expect, was brilliant. With no shortage of false claims from Fox to choose from, Stewart starts running through a bunch of their reports which were proven false by PolitiFact— including two which one the group’s “Lie of the Year” award.
Next: 7. Simplicity is lost on Ron Paul