Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Fox News flack hides behind anonymity to attack Jon Stewart.

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reports that during a gathering with reporters in Denver yesterday, Daily Show host Jon Stewart ripped Fox News, saying the network’s “‘fair and balanced’ slogan is an insult ‘to people with brains’” and that “Barack Obama could cure cancer and they’d figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster.” In response, a Fox News spokesman attacked Stewart, but he refused to give his name:

stewartweb2.jpgA Fox News spokesman, who was authorized to give the network’s response to Stewart’s comments but declined to be named, replied that “Jon’s clearly out of touch,” citing a Pew Research Center study showing the network has the most balanced audience in cable news, 39 percent Republicans and 33 percent Democrats. “But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon, as evidenced by the crash-and-burn ratings of this year’s Oscars telecast.”

Media Matters’ new blog County Fair notes that allowing the Fox spokesman anonymity in this case is against the Post’s attribution policy.

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