Both Stewart and Baier make some interesting points about the Fox News phenomenon(although it's an interesting dynamic between the two since Baier is geuninely trying to defend his show and Fox News, and Stweart is hosting a political satire show), there is one part of the interview that is particularly interesting. Baier argues that there is a news segment of Fox and an opinion segment of Fox, and that the distinction can be clearly perceived. Stewart strongly disagrees, and then says, "I wasn't aware that quality and ratings were the same." Clearly the two are not the same, and Baier's use of Fox's top ratings as a defense against accusations of extreme bias is flawed in some major ways. However, this idea brings up an interesting question: do liberals, and perhaps the segments of the media that are liberal, operate on the assumption the average American citizen cannot tell the difference between news and opinion (Stewart praises the New York Times for clearly labeling which sections are which) while conservatives, and especailly Fox News, believe that Americans are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what is news and what is opinion?
The answer to the question of whether or not the average citizen is capable of discerning what is news and what is editorial could have some important implications for the media--is it necessary to specify? If there is no articulated distinction, will the actual line between the two itself blur?
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