According to Dylan Stableford: "A rep for Fox says that Hannity will address the issue on his show tonight."

Seriously, what will he say? The video evidence is obvious, and Hannity is heard babbling about how it is "Thursday" over footage from a Saturday in September, thus making some sort of "we didn't intend to deceive we just used rally file footage" argument a nonstarter.

But, you know, this is Sean Hannity, who does not care about "the truth" or "honesty" or "not booking insane antisemites on the show and not mentioning that they are insane antisemites," so who cares what he will say.

It will probably just be something like "the Jews sneaked in that other footage and tricked me into airing it, because I, Sean Hannity, am an antisemite who hates the Jews."

The highlight is probably the unveiling of the conspiratorial internal organ chalkboard. All the notes—references to old and discredited texts, the Founding Fathers, transparently phony stabs at nonpartisanship, crying—are hit, though Stewart never quite reaches the operatic unhingedness of a genuine Beck performance. The glasses are a wonderful touch, though.

As we have covered: one of those stunt-staging Young Republican types went into dozens of ACORN offices across the country dressed in his finest Pimp costume from Ricky's, along with a woman playing his "prostitute." They proceeded to ask ridiculous questions, and in three or four offices, they were provided with suitably ridiculous answers.

So, yes, this decentralized network of low-income community centers is abetting criminal activity, or at least they are telling a 17-year-old-looking white kid in a fur coat to keep his "pimp" money in a tin in the back yard so the government doesn't get it.

That, actually, is what this fuss is about: ACORN is giving out free advice on tax-evasion to poor people! Finding loopholes in the tax code and exploiting them to hide your criminal activity and society-damaging behavior is for rich people, ACORN. That is one of the few remaining benefits of getting rich and now the leeches want to take that away, too!

Now the federal government will never, ever give any money to ACORN again. Sorry, victims of predatory lending, your lobby just got PUNK'D.

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham released this statement tonight regarding Bahari's arrest:

We are deeply concerned about Mr. Bahari's detention. As a longtime NEWSWEEK reporter he has worked hard to be balanced in his coverage of Iran. We see no reason why he should be held by the authorities. We respectfully ask that they release him as soon as possible.

Newsweek notes that there have been at least 20 journalists and bloggers arrested by the Iranian government in their recent crackdown on the reporting of strife within that country. Tehran Bureau lists many of them, as well as a number of politicians and academics who've been captured, in this post on their website.

Interestingly, Maziar Bahari was interviewed by Jason Jones in a Daily Show segment that aired on Thursday night. He is also the author of a book on Iran's social transformation being brought about by its burgeoning population of young intellectuals, something that probably didn't sit well with the country's hardline religious leadership.

Newsweek Reporter Arrested [Newsweek]

Dave Itzkoff interviewed Jones (for a *blog*) before seeing the segment, but he tried to cover and preempt all possible criticisms. Jones, in turn, just stuck to self-deprecation, knowing his report would crush the paper very soon. For example:

When you do your on-camera interviews, you have producers on hand who help feed you questions and one-liners. Is it fair that our editors don't have the same support?
Are you suggesting I use writers for my material that looks like I just made it up on the spot? You guys have got a research department, we don't have that. You could have done your research on me, knowing how underhanded I would be in interviews. I suppose it's a fair fight. You've also got brains. I don't have those.

He ends by calling all NYT reporters pussies except for David Carr, who's a "badass," which may be the most factually accurate moment in this entire meta-story. Update: And as Kurt Anderson points out, before anyone gives the Times too much credit for having a sense of humor, they're still too timid to use the word fart. In an exchange about Keller's journalism pedigree:

You understand, he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of apartheid in South Africa?
Yes, but I can make [flatulence] noises.

The WSJ also interviewed Jones (for a *blog*), and they seemed to have a better sense of humor about their prime competitor being mocked:

What, in your opinion, are the job prospects for journalists in the future?

I would gladly enjoy being served by a journalist who has now become a barista as opposed to some high school dropout who's a barista, because that's an informed coffee pour.

[NYT, WSJ]

The slant of the Daily Show's skit was that the paper is sad old relic from a bygone era, or a "walking Colonial Williamsburg" as Jones put it, and he basically breezes around the place making fun of everyone and everything for being old and outdated and on the verge of death, culminating in interviews with executive editor Bill Keller and assistant managing editor Rick Berke.

It's to Berke that Jones poses the question, "Why is aged news better than real news?" When Berke contends that the Times doesn't sell "aged news" Jones counters by pointing to a copy of the paper and asks, "Show me one thing in there that happened today." Berke then spends the next few seconds looking utterly befuddled while trying to come up with an answer.

But it's Jones' sit-down interview with Keller that was the most wince-inducing part of the whole thing. Jones queries Keller about the paper's revenue stream, asking "Does it make Huffington Post money?" Keller responds by saying he doesn't know how much money HuffPo makes, but then adds, "The last time I was in Baghdad I didn't see a Huffington Post bureau or a Google bureau or a Drudge Report bureau...it's a lot easier to stay home and riff on the work that somebody else does." Jones' nodding response—"Much easier and more fun to read."

And finally Jones tells Keller an old newspaper joke with a twist in the punchline: "What's black and white and read all over?...Your balance sheets." Keller laughs but squirms around in his seat quite a bit, and we were squirming right with him the whole time.

Watching this segment it's hard not to be struck by the maddening pervasiveness of a "they hate us so why is Obama bothering talking to them" attitude at Fox, which Stewart counters by noting that many of these same pundits wrongly thought that we could transform the entire region through military force, yet they now ridicule the idea of having intelligent conversations with the region's people instead. Stewart also notes how these same commentators also believe that Obama's thinking he can make peace between the U.S. and the Muslim world is "pie in the sky" dreaming, failing to remember how a Republican president named Reagan once dared to dream big and befriended Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the evil Soviets who wanted to blow us off the face of the earth for decades, and together they tore down a little wall and transformed the shape of the world.

Stewart's "degenerate" argument was derived mainly from a chapter in the book where King details some of the seedier aspects of his life back in the late 60's and early 70s. In short, he was a gambling addict, a lover of the ponies, and he wasn't afraid to rip off a few people here and there to feed his addiction. Thus, Stewart's degenerate label. King did get a nice shot in as well though, making note of Stewart's short stature while on the subject of horse racing and saying, "You could be a jockey." Zing!

And did YOU know that Larry King was in the White House with Bill Clinton the night Vince Foster killed himself in there?! We didn't!

In what was largely a rather chummy two-part interview with Jon Stewart, Gingrich, perhaps the only modern Republican leader who regularly exhibits a capacity for rational, original thought, usually delivered eloquently and in complete sentences, which at the very least makes him one of the few party leaders who doesn't incite genital-punching when he speaks, expressed outrage at Pelosi's recent "utterly irrational" behavior in regards to her attacks on the CIA, saying that she needed to prove her allegations or step down from her position of Speaker of the House, something Gingrich knows a lot about, himself having resigned the post in disgrace in 1999. In her defense he did mention, however, that he is not in favor of "enhanced interrogations" to be used to squeeze the truth out of her. Zing!

Newt Gingrich on the Daily Show [Daily Show]

See back when they were both just young and fancy-free recent college grads, Jon Stewart was roommates with Anthony Weiner's girlfriend, and Anthony would always be up in their apartment like hey, let's eat some frozen burritos! So they're still kinda pals UNTIL NOW, when this scandalous Weiner interview came out, where he says the Daily Show has a "corrosive effect on my business [politics and dating way way out of one's league]" and that cynicism about politics "exists because of Jon's show." You see:

I think there becomes a feedback loop that's corrosive. Congressmen do dumb things, yes, then are highlighted for doing dumb things, and highlighted some more, and people watch it and say that congressmen do dumb things, and so then when another congressman does a dumb thing, it's like, "Well, my audience wants to watch a congressman do a dumb thing," and then the audience laughs at the congressman doing a dumb thing, and then Jon says, "Hey, I got a great scam here, lemme go find another congressman doing a dumb thing," and where do I get in? Where do I get in not doing a dumb thing? Not being a bozo?

Can't say we know WTF he's talking about exactly but clearly this is war. Jon, why not run a scandalous photo montage of Anthony's girlfriends past and present? Please. That'll get him.
[City Scoops NY via NY Mag]

Stewart focused most of his scorn at Barack Obama's blocking the release of suspected terrorist detainee photos, and his refusal to intervene in the dismissal of a gay lieutenant Dan Choi, one of the U.S. military's few competent Arabic translators. However, not a word was mentioned about the Obama's accepting of that damn Portuguese water dog from Ted Kennedy, and that one still burns me up a bit.

Have you ever known anyone who went to Arizona State? Seriously, they're all twats.

Rather's segment, a mock report about Richard Nixon eating a burrito in 1973 (clip below), keyed off Sean Hannity's slam of Barack Obama for requesting "spicy mustard... or a Dijon mustard" on his cheeseburger the other day.

It's awesome that Rather went along with this, not only because he actually was a TV journalist in 1973, but also because his Laugh-In delivery style provides a nice break from the fake-news-show's relentless (if smart) sarcasm. If this fake news up-and-comer plays his cards right, maybe he actually make a name for himself inside a vaunted news organization with unquestioned dominance over the industry (Comedy Central).

[via E&P]

Yes, it's absurd to argue with straight face that "walling" isn't so terrible, or that America's enemies will, somehow, cleverly exploit the country's apparent limit of 183 waterboardings against a single individual.

But Jon Stewart and company made the pro-torture spin-storm seem farcical on a whole other level, thanks in part to an incredible Karl Rove clip, and of course one Peggy Noonan.

You should really watch the whole segment below, but we've distilled the best minute and a half above.

Though this disturbing phenomenon has been going on for some time, last night The Daily Show advanced the trend. Correspondent Jason Jones filed a report from Miami Beach, where elderly folks have been contracting STDs in record amounts, because of all their old-timey, no-holds-barred, afternoon fucking. While STDs typically shouldn't be a laughing matter, the segment was brilliant and hilarious and oddly sweet and vaguely sad but mostly a terrifying reminder that you, too, if you're lucky, will someday mash your withered genitals up against some other past-its-prime grapefruit just to while away the hours. You know, like when you're old. Like forty or whatever. Clip is below.

Daily Show producer Miles Kahn griped about overcharging.

Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich doubted the value of looking for work on Twitter.

MSNBC gossip Courtney Hazlett analogized.

Time media critic James Poniewozik tried to save Twitter from itself.

Talking Points Memo blogger Matt Cooper worked on his daddy issues.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

The CNBC host has been engaged in a heated back and forth with Stewart this past week over whether he's done too much Wall Street cheerleading on his Mad Money show.

The spat followed a broader attack Stewart launched against CNBC after the financial network's Rick Santelli backed out of a scheduled appearance, reportedly because he's a big chicken.

Cramer's relative bravery didn't buy him softer treatment from Stewart, judging by what AP is reporting:

"I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a f—king game," Stewart told Cramer... He alleged CNBC was ultimately in bed with the businesses it covered - that regular people's stocks and 401Ks were "capitalizing on your adventure."

Cramer's recent line of attack was that Stewart, a comedian, lacks the sophisticated understanding of financial markets Cramer employs when telling callers to "buy buy buy," blowing a clown whistle or giving a grossly misleading softball interview to his old boss.

Cramer backed off from the tough talk on Martha Stewart's show today. And it looks he's in full retreat mode tonight, based on the Associated Press' unattributed report (which probably came either via an audience member or Comedy Central briefing). AP:

[Stewart] accused the financial news network of willfully ignoring corporate dishonesty.

For his part, Cramer disagreed with Stewart on a few points, but mostly agreed that he could have done a better job foreseeing the economic collapse. Cramer called himself a "fan of the show" and said his network was "fair game" to Stewart's criticism.

Which is why Cramer won't end up basically ruined like Carlson: Carlson fought Stewart hard at every turn. Cramer's been very, very wrong often enough that he can do the contrition bit quite convincingly.

(Pic: Associated Press)

(UPDATE: Added additional info from a longer AP article.)

Jim Cramer at Buttermilk Channel, corner of Court St. and Huntington St. in Carroll Gardens... around 9 pm. Maybe he was loading up on sustenance before tomorrow's thrashing, courtesy of Jon Stewart. He got caught by an adoring fan, a busty Brooklyn brunette, at the bar while on his way out. His wife may or may not have looked at said fan threateningly. He actually seemed pretty low-key, and I think he was wearing a Jets jacket over his suit.

Host Jon Stewart seemed discomfited by his guest's wild, table-slapping howls. But any tech reporter who's interviewed Bezos knows that the Amazon.com's CEO hooting laughter is his most distinctive personal quality, the hook of every headline.

As the '90s bubble burst, observers wondered if Bezos's online bookstore would survive, as it lost money with every shipment. In 2000, then-Red Herring editor Jason Pontin called him a "chuckling maniac" running a "terrible company." Oops! Amazon.com survived and thrived while hundreds of other online retailers perished. Every profile writer since then has felt obligated to trot out a tired line about Bezos "getting the last laugh."

Yet that misunderstands Bezos. The laugh is part of his schtick. He's having fun! He's got a surprise! Where Apple CEO Steve Jobs wooed audiences with imperious cool, Bezos plays it loose and goofy. (Like the time he bragged about having sex at a commencement speech.) Just when you think you've got him figured out, he changes his story. It goes something like this:

You thought Amazon.com was a bookstore. No, wait, it's a retailer, the Wal-Mart of the Web. It's a bricks-and-mortar play, with superefficient real-world warehouses. No, it's a software maker whose Web services underpin the likes of Twitter and SmugMug. Oh, never mind — now it's all about the Kindle, which is clearly the iPod of the book world!

By shifting Amazon.com's focus, Bezos gets Wall Street to think about Amazon.com's starry potential rather than the grinding reality of its workaday business, which is a low-margin, highly competitive retail business. Bezos would never get on the Daily Show to talk about Amazon's latest discount electronics offers. That's the real joke here. And that's why Bezos is really laughing.

(Video by Ryan Tate)