About the Daily Show

Mollie Hemingway has a pretty convincing call to be wary of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. It’s predicated on the experience of a fellow named Matt Slick, who agreed to be part of a produced piece. He details his experience here.

The producers Slick spoke with misrepresented their intentions to him, but that’s no great sin and it happens at every level from the New York Times and 60 Minutes down to Sally Jesse and your local City Paper. But what’s really eye popping is the editing which was done in post to distort Slick’s words.

After the fact, Slick requested a copy of the full interview (nearly 3 hours), but the show refused. Luckily, Slick was smart enough to record the interview separately. For example:

What they edited and put on TV was this:

Matt:  “The reverse happens as well [camera angle change] where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up.”

Now notice what happened on the show.  They had me saying, “The reverse happens as well [camera angle change] where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up.”  That is not what I said.  I said “I don’t know about bullying where homosexuals go out and find straights to beat up”.

That’s most definitely not something that happens every day. But unless the Daily Show comes out and apologizes to Slick, you have to assume it’s standard operating procedure over there.