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Jon Stewart "in the Crossfire"

Jon Stewart might just be my hero. The Daily Show host's Friday appearance on CNN's Crossfire is currently making the rounds of the blogoshpere. CNN has the transcript, Bittorrent has the movie files.

Cornered by CNN's two "partisan hacks," Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson, Stewart came out swinging, delivering a straightforward indictment of Crossfire and other "hard-hitting" debate shows. Stewart aimed most of his charges at Tucker Carlson and seemed baffled by Carlson's charges of hypocrisy.

STEWART: But the thing is that this -- you're doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great.

BEGALA: We do, do...

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: What is wrong with you?

Now, I have nothing against partisan hacks per se, but CNN is supposedly "the most trusted name in news." Despite (or perhaps because of) Jon Stewart's protestations, the Daily Show actually lives up to this ideal. I can't find the video but here is a partial transcript of a recent sketch ridiculing what passes for fair and balanced reporting on the major news outlets.