The only way this could have been any better would be if Jason Jones and Wyatt Cenac were given seats at the table with the segment extended an extra two or three minutes. Regardless, this is exactly the sort of ridiculous satire that the utterly idiotic notion of health care death panels so justly deserved.

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]

In what Jon Stewart billed as the first in a series of reports from Iran, all filmed prior to the election, that they think will "present an interesting snapshot of a nation unaware of what awaits it," Jones took to the streets to ask ordinary Iranians about their hatred for Americans. Then he visited the home of an Iranian family in search of answers to the same questions, gifting the children with cartons of cigarettes, and they loved him anyway.

Minutes after The Daily Show's segment on The Times aired last week, some in the Times newsroom voiced their sentiment that correspondent Jason Jones' "report" went just fine. "That was awesome," said one staffer to us on the night of the show. "We're good sports!"

Haha, presumably "one staffer" was neither Bill Keller nor Rick Berke, both of whom got embarrassed. But no Jason Jones revenge takedowns have been published yet, so maybe they really are good sports! John Koblin also finds out that the Daily Show cut out interviews with David Carr, Sewell Chan, and others, probably because they did not stare quizzically at a proffered paper with a deer-in-the-headlights look for a suitably awkward period of time.
[NYO]

The Times redacted Jason Jones' use of the word fart in an online interview today about the Daily Show correspondent's evisceration of the newspaper, choosing to replace it with the clinical term your 4th grade teacher preferred: "[flatulence]."

Daniel Radosh, who has long chronicled the idiotic and prudish efforts of newspapers to avoid using bad words, points out quite reasonably that fart is not even remotely close to a term that any reasonable person over the age of 8 could conceivably find offensive, which is why the Times uses it all the time.

But he goes the extra mile by adding that, as we speak, the Times is hosting a trailer for Le Journal Erotique D'Un Bucheron—which translates as The Erotic Diary of a Lumberjack—a 1974 French film that looks really good. The trailer features oral sex, naked wrestling, breasts, and all-around inescapable full-frontal nudity that you wouldn't want to watch with your parents. No farts though, as far as we could tell.

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.

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