"Honestly, I think you want to be a political player," Wallace insisted.
"You can't understand because of world you live in that there is not a designed ideological agenda on my part to affect partisan change. Because that's the soup you swim in. I appreciate that. I understand that. It reminds me of, you know, you know, ideological regimes. They can't understand that there is free media other places. Because they receive marching orders."
"I don't think the viewers are the least bit disappointed with us," Wallace said. "Our viewers think finally we're getting somebody to tell the other side of the story."
"Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers?" Stewart asked. "The most consistently misinformed? Fox viewers. Consistently. Every poll."
"I'm just trying to understand you," Wallace claimed.
"Is that really true? Here is the thing that surprises me about that. I've existed in this country forever. There have been people like this who satirized the political process," Stewart explained.
"I'm sitting here talking to Jon Stewart. I'm trying to get it. Understand you and what I believe to be true: there is as much bias on the other side as you subscribe to Fox and why you go easy on that."
"I think there is, probably a liberal bias that exists in the media because of the medium in which it exists. The majority of people working in it probably hold liberal view points, but I don't think they are as relentlessly activist as the conservative movement that has risen up over the last 40 years," Stewart said. "Do you get me?"
"Well, you know what? When you come back we can explore this some more," Wallace concluded.
Do watch the whole thing, it's fascinating. Wallace has no clue what to do here, he's completely stunned by the fact that Stewart wasn't totally shut down by the mere mention that Stewart might have a liberal viewpoint. Anyone else in the Village would have gone out of their way to prove that "for the love of God you can't call me a liberal!" and would have spent the entire interview kissing Wallace's ass.
And it's a devastating critique of our journalism in 2011 that the best explanation of the modern media moment and how it is nothing more than ideological propaganda is coming from the mouth of a goddamn late-night comedian.
We deserve what we get, apparently. Steve Benen by the way backs up Stewart's claim that FOX viewers are the most "consistently misinformed" here.
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