Stewart, O'Reilly Trade Jabs

Jon Stewart ventured onto a hostile playing field today, sitting down for an interview with Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly that gave both ample room to land haymakers. While the Daily Show host denounced the conservative channel’s coverage of President Obama—“All I hear on your network is tyranny and socialism”—O’Reilly ripped Stewart’s audience as “stoned slackers.”

“Do you understand the implication of you being important in any context?” O’Reilly asked after frowning over Stewart’s impact on popular culture. “Well, I think my family loves me,” Stewart rejoined. A Fox programming exec spun the interview (whose second portion airs tomorrow night on O’Reilly’s show) thus to the Los Angeles Times: “What other place would allow him to do that? That’s what makes us No. 1. We invite our critics on and let them criticize us to our face.”
(More Bill O'Reilly Jon Stewart stories.)