January 13, 2010 FOX News
O'REILLY: "Personal story" segment tonight, as we discussed earlier this week, television comedians like the late night guys can set a tone that can actually help or hurt politicians. Now I believe the entertainment industry gave Barack Obama about 5 percentage points in the last election. Right now, perhaps the biggest supporter of President Obama is "Comedy Central's" Jon Stewart, whose young audience generally supports the president.
Now Mr. Stewart has made fun of the president, but he generally knocks Obama critics much harder. In the wake of the underwear bomber where the president was criticized for being too unemotional, Mr. Stewart spun the issue this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: In case you're wondering why the underwear bomber in Detroit counts as a terrorist attack against Obama, but the shoe bomber does not count against President Bush.
MONICA CROWLEY: President Bush and Vice President Cheney had a 100 percent perfect track record in keeping the homeland safe from an Islamic terrorist attack. So far this year.
O'REILLY: Well, what about the shoe bomber?
CROWLEY: Well, that was coming into the United States. It was not a domestic terror attack. I mean, it was meant to be.
O'REILLY: Right.
CROWLEY: .but it was stopped by the folks on the plane.
STEWART: I know what you're thinking, but the underwear bomber was also stopped by a guy on the plane, too. But see, that doesn't count because the guy who stopped the underwear bomber was Dutch. See, if we were playing Australian rules terror ball, than yes, I would allow this. But this is not what we're playing.
Let me explain this again for you (EXPLETIVE) idiots out there. Very quickly. Terror ball, the lower your score, the better. The game ends when.
O'REILLY: One more terrorist attack, because there have been three on Obama's watch in the first year. One more on our soil, you know, a major one where you get dead bodies and this, that, and the other thing, he's done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about, you know, dead bodies, the whole business. Four strikes and you're done. It's like Kenyan baseball. Manager comes out and puts in someone serious about the game. Let's go straight to the scoreboard. Now you and I can argue all day, or we can just look at the numbers. Three attacks, zero attacks, mercy rule, game over, thanks for playing.
STEWART: John, the Richard Reid bombing is the equivalent, though, of the underwear bombing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it doesn't count.
STEWART: Okay. You're counting Fort Hood against Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
STEWART: Why not count the U.S. soldier that killed the fellow soldiers with a grenade in Kuwait in 2003?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has to happen in the homeland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Okay. The question, how much influence does Jon Stewart and other Obama supporters have? Joining us from Chicago, Democratic political commentator Laura Schwartz.
So you know, look, the -- we understand they're comedians. We understand they make a living in doing this, that, and the other thing. We also understand that Jon Stewart's audience is overwhelmingly, I think it's 80 percent, liberal. And like they Barack Obama. And I don't hold any of this against Mr. Stewart, but he is emerging as -- he's got President Obama's back, does he not?
LAURA SCHWARTZ: I think it depends which episode you watch. I mean, I think he's pretty much a liberal, but to me, that's not a.
O'REILLY: You think he's a liberal, Laura, you think.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, I see...
O'REILLY: You're not entirely sure?
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, no, I see him as a liberal.
O'REILLY: Okay.
SCHWARTZ: No, I see him as a liberal. But I got to tell you, I don't think that's the point, Bill, cause like last week he did a whole montage on stealth care, because he ran all the clips of Obama saying it was going to be open, live on C-Span.
O'REILLY: And he did that to everybody else.
SCHWARTZ: And it's not.
O'REILLY: And I mentioned that. And I mentioned it.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah. And the clip that you showed just now was preceded by two segments on Governor Blagojevich, my former governor here in Chicago, the defamed Democrat, and then Harry Reid. So whether it's equal opportunity bashing, I don't know. The percentages versus.
O'REILLY: But wouldn't you say that out of all of them now, Letterman, Leno, O'Brien, Colbert and.
SCHWARTZ: For a while longer.
O'REILLY: You know, Stewart is the guy who is basically saying, you know, I'm a traffic cop here. If you go after Obama in an unfair way, I'm going to mock you. I mean, we have seen a pattern of behavior. Not that there's anything wrong with that, by the way. I don't think there's anything wrong with what he does. He does take things out of context, which I don't like. But other than that, he's free to do it. But he is doing it. and the question is does it matter?
SCHWARTZ: I think it does sway voters, Bill. And definitely, when you look at his demographic, those 18 to 34-year-olds, and where they voted in the last election.
O'REILLY: Right.
SCHWARTZ: .and I spent a lot of time on college campuses and universities. And a lot of them say that's where they go to get things.
O'REILLY: That's where they go.
SCHWARTZ: But even Jon Stewart says this is fake news.
O'REILLY: But it doesn't matter what he says.
SCHWARTZ: I want "Comedy Central." But it doesn't because it's still how it's interpreted by that audience.
O'REILLY: Right. Now how badly do you think the pundits, not the pundits, the comedians have hurt Sarah Palin? Because I think they've hurt her a lot. You know, the perception is that she's a dunderhead. And it comes from "Saturday Night Live", from Colbert and Stewart and from the late night guys.
SCHWARTZ: Well, perception is everything, Bill. And so they have more of the air waves than she does or any other politician. Yeah.
O'REILLY: Not anymore.
SCHWARTZ: Their voice is heard more and louder.
O'REILLY: Not anymore, Laura.
SCHWARTZ: I'm just talking about.
O'REILLY: Not any more.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, I know, but I'm talking about what you were referring to.
O'REILLY: Right.
SCHWARTZ: Absolutely not. Hey, you've got Sarah.
O'REILLY: That's right.
SCHWARTZ: (INAUDIBLE), Bill.
O'REILLY: And she was smart to do it.
SCHWARTZ: Good for FOX. No, I think so, too. I think she'd be smarter doing.
O'REILLY: Very smart.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, I think it was a good move for her. Very good. But yeah, I really think that folks watching this, I think have to take responsibility. If he points something out like he did about national security, you know, as with all of your anchors and correspondents, I don't care what network or what story, do some of your own investigation. We got the Internet. Look at different points of view.
O'REILLY: I don't know, but you know how many Kool-aid drinks there are.
SCHWARTZ: (INAUDIBLE).
O'REILLY: And the perception.
SCHWARTZ: Oh, yeah, there's a lot of people that.
O'REILLY: .look, most people don't even bother with politics very much. They just kind of pick it up in the wind. Laura, thanks very much. We appreciate you.
