Jon Stewart dismissed the controversy over Bill O'Reilly's "war zone" experience because the "Daily Show" anchor claimed that "No one's watching him for the actual truth."
"Really? We're going after O'Reilly for exaggerating being in a war zone? I don't know if you watch his program," Stewart said Tuesday, "misrepresenting the zone he is in is kind of his hook."
Stewart played a clip of O'Reilly welcoming viewers to the "No Spin Zone" on his cable show, "The O'Reilly Factor," and then pointed out what he said was the absurdity of the the controversy surrounding the Fox News host.
Stewart said O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone" takes place on a network whose slogan "Fair & Balanced" is, according to Stewart, a "text book case of trolling."
O'Reilly is embroiled in a controversy over his disputed claims about covering the Falklands War, a controversy that Stewart felt was missing the point.
"No one's watching him for the actual truth," Stewart added. "You're basically putting in a tremendous amount of work to say the emperor has no clothes, when the emperor has spent like 20 years going 'look... I'm naked!'"
O'Reilly and Stewart are two of the top rated anchors on cable TV and because of this (and their many opposing views) they have taken pot shots at one another and have been semi-rivals.
They have made guest appearances on each other's shows and have taken on one another in "The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium," a entertaining live debate that took place in 2012.
