In a retort to media critics who question news competitors’ motives in devoting so much coverage to the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show takes a look at how Fox News pundits are downplaying the troubles of their parent corporation as a great big news media pile-on.
“Maybe your competitors are taking an unseemly amount of pleasure but perhaps…they don’t have the ability to spot stories of real criminality of, let’s say, NPR,” Stewart says in introducing a clip reel of Fox News punditry on NPR’s dismissal of news analyst Juan Williams.
NPR’s Dana Davis Rehm recently responded to questions about NPR’s motives in covering the scandal: “We’re making decisions about the coverage of the News Corp. story, as we do with all stories, based on its importance and news value,” Rehm told the Washington Post‘s Paul Farhi. “This is very big news with global impact, and we’re really proud of our coverage.”