Bernie Goldberg on Monday accused Jon Stewart of being a gutless comedian that is much harder on Tea Partiers and Fox News personalities than liberal media members.
Appearing on "The O'Reilly Factor," Goldberg admitted that "The Daily Show" host was right when he said last week that FNC anchors and hosts often make generalizations about liberals.
But "when you had [New York Times columnist] Frank Rich on your show, who generalizes all the time about conservatives and Republicans being bigots," Goldberg said as if speaking directly to Stewart, "you didn't ask him a single tough question."
"You gave him a lap dance. You practically had your tongue down his throat."
The former CBS Newser continued, "You are just a safe, Jay Leno with a much smaller audience, but you get to say the f-bomb, which gives your incredibly unsophisticated audience the illusion, the illusion that you're courageous and that you're a renegade" (video follows with partial transcript, h/t The Right Scoop):
BERNIE GOLDBERG: I will just speak about me. He does. I am pleading guilty. And that's a sincere plea of guilty. I said that liberals think people who live in the middle of the country are a bunch of jerks, and obviously all liberals don't think that. But I will tell you what, an awful lot of liberal elites think that. I worked with these liberal elites for 28 years at CBS News, and they were always throwing around the term white trash, by which they meant poor southerners who didn't go to Harvard. I'm not sure why that makes them trash. As far as the middle of the country is concerned, you know, this was flyover country where people flew the flag on the Fourth of July and went bowling and ate at Red Lobster. You know, they were a bunch of hicks. But even all liberal elites don't think that. So I am saying I was wrong, Jon Stewart is right.
But let me speak directly to Jon Stewart for just a few of seconds, because I know he watches. He is a big fan of the show. And Jon, if you have an ounce of introspection, you may want to take this seriously. If you just want to be a funny man, who talks to an audience that will laugh at anything you say, that's okay with me, no problem. But if clearly you want to be a social commentator, more than just a comedian and if you want to be a good one, you better find some guts because even though you criticize liberals as well as conservatives, congratulations on that, when you had Frank Rich on your show, who generalizes all the time about conservatives and Republicans being bigots, you didn't ask him a single tough question. You gave him a lap dance. You practically had your tongue down his throat. And how about those black columnists who play the race card and generalize about Tea Party people being racists? Why don't you go after them by name and do it with the same passion and gusto that you use when you are going after Fox people? And how about Bill Maher? Bill Maher generalizes about people who go to church being a bunch of dopes. Is there some rule that says a comic can't go after another comic?
Here is my final word, Jon, you can do whatever you want. But if you don't do that guess what? You are not nearly as edgy as you think you are. You are just a safe, Jay Leno with a much smaller audience, but you get to say the f-bomb, which gives your incredibly unsophisticated audience the illusion, the illusion that you're courageous and that you're a renegade. But it's only an illusion.
