The Cutting Room Factor

Last week, Daily Show host Jon Stewart recorded an interview for The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). The edited interview was broadcast on O’Reilly’s show over two nights, but much of the 40-plus minutes’ content was edited out.

I saw the first half, and thought that Stewart started some good points, then somehow failed to press them home. Then I saw the whole interview, and it was clear that he had pursued the attack, which had been selectively cut. At least Fox put the uncut footage out there and O’Reilly even signposted it, though the thought enters that most viewers would not put aside the time required to view it.

What Fox did broadcast, however, was a lengthy and uncontested diatribe from O’Reilly telling how Fox was right and Stewart wrong, along with a segment where a body language expert told Bill-O, more or less, how wonderfully he had done.

Try and check out the full interview – it’s worth a look.