Jon Stewart Mocks Piers Morgan, Chastises CNN in 'Larry King' Interview

By John Mitchell Posted Oct 21st 2010 12:40PM

Wednesday night, Larry King expected (and tried his best) to talk to Jon Stewart about his upcoming "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," but the ballsy star had other plans and spent much of his time criticizing CNN and the net's choice to replace King with Piers Morgan, who is, according to Stewart, "a British guy no one's heard of."

Stewart did reveal that his rally with Comedy Central cohort Stephen Colbert is not intended as an "anti-Glenn Beck rally" and that it "is not a political rally in any way, shape or form. It is a visceral expression of a people fed up with the reflection that they are shown of themselves as a divided people." Watch a clip from the interview after the jump.

During the interview, Stewart seemed deliberately coy when it came to giving up details about the rally but let his dissatisfaction with the cable news networks be known. He called King's choice to leave CNN "wise" and chastised the network as "terrible" for having the means to cover the news fairly and comprehensively but failing to do so. "It is an opportunity squandered," Stewart said. Watch:

When King asked if Stewart's plans for a civil, shouting-free rally would translate into a boring event, the 'Daily Show' host responded, "Wouldn't it be nice to not have so much fanaticism? Wouldn't it be nice if the conflict and the false urgency of the 24-hour news networks ... Of which you very wisely have decided to walk away from. By the way, I think they've made a brilliant choice by bringing in a British guy no one's heard of. When I'm thinking about floating a sinking ship, what do I want to bring on it: A guy that people are going to tune in and go, 'Who's that, and why is he speaking so funny?'"

Of FOX News, Stewart's longtime foe, America's Most Trusted Newsman echoed statements he's made previously: That the net's undisguised conservative agenda renders it a political organization and not a news network. "I think they've built an incredible political organization," he said, "a really effective political organization," but called the net's decision to advance a point of view "wrong-headed for a news organization" and said FOX's "fair and balanced" motto was "a complete lie."

Stewart did reveal that the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" was conceived more as an antidote to the divisiveness and fanaticism he believes FOX News and similar organizations promote than as a push for any particular political agenda. "We are presuming that 75 to 85 percent of the country, reasonable people that get along, they may not agree on things but they can do things, and the other 15 percent control it -- the dialogue, the legislation," Stewart said. "This [the rally] is for the people that are too busy, that have jobs and lives and are tired of their reflection in the media as being a divided country and a country that is ideological and conflicted and fighting. This is for those people."

Comedy Central will broadcast the Oct. 30 rally in its entirety from the National Mall in Washington, D.C. "We are using the rally format to do the same thing we do with our shows," Stewart told King. "The message will be a very similar type idea."

On the rally's Facebook page, nearly 215,000 people are already saying they're making the trip, with an untold (and more difficult to predict) number of others expected to attend.

For more on the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," check out:
► Oprah Gives 'Daily Show' Audience Free Trip to 'Rally to Restore Sanity'
► Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert Using Rallies for Charity
► Jon Stewart Announces DC 'Rally to Restore Sanity'

Tags: cnn, daily show, jon stewart, larry king, Piers Morgan, rally to restore sanity

Comments

(18)

Thursday 21 October

By benji

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I watched Stewart, and dont even know him to well, and I agree with him 100%. I personly will NOT watch Morgan,not because he is British, No , because he is so arrogant and smug.

By vickie

I love john stewart .He is an incredibly smart man ..

Friday 22 October

By amazon1967

I love Stewart and Colbert. I am happy to say I will be at the rally and I cant wait. It's going to be a great day.

By Mr. Leo

The only one worth watching on CNN is Anderson Cooper.
Morgan is just awful.

By jennifer

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Stewart is a liar. His rally is 100% political, is for liberals, and just "coincidentally" is being held the weekend before the election. If it's not political, how about holding it the weekend after the election, pig? Stop pretending you're not a total lib, Stewart. Notice how his problem is always with Fox (in his words, a political organization), but never with MSNBC... because he believes the way they do politically. Total LIAR and hypocrite. AKA lib.

By Dave

Actually, Stewart is very open about his liberal views. And he criticizes MSNBC on his program quite often (granted, not as often as he criticizes Fox News).

...but jennifer....your party has scared all the white people....he is going to help restore the sanity because your republican/teaparty people think we lost our country....To who????tell me ..."take back our country"...from who???your the idiots...........

By KarenfromCali

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You need to relax a little. Maybe more fiber would help your pinched and angry attitude. This is a democratic republic, a place for civil disagreement, not hateful name calling.

By Polly Dieter

Not true. He makes fun of CNN and MSNBC too!

By charles

You are exactly right, Jennifer and Gabrielle. Notice how vickie and karenfromcali and keeslvr and jerrie smith don't address the incredibly coincidental timing of the "non-political" rally. And notice that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are making the rounds and getting help from other piece-of-filth libs like Dave Letterman. Non-political, yeah. Don't worry though, election's almost here. Then we can begin focusing on getting Obama out in 2012 -- the dumbest, most racist president ever.

By gabrielle

Agree, Jennifer. He's a hypocrite in every way. And for someone who says his rally is about "restoring civility" and "being an antidote to divisiveness", he sure has a lot of negative things to say about Fox, conservatives, and Piers Morgan. Real civil, John.

By jerrie smith

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it's ashame when someone speaks ans makes sense about what's happening to this country people like the two responded above. don't they see how the rich republicans are hording all the money not trying to help the country by opening up factories and other trypes of businesses o0ver here in the united states to help the people and the country instead of sending all the jobs to china and other countries these so call business men are in it to only make a progit for themselves they do not care how their country men and women are faring i don't know how they can sleep at night with nour country suffrfing so t6hey cannot take it with them so why don't they try to help this country to get back on its feet then they would reap even more

Nyce Inglish. I cannt bleeve ur voat counts.

By Rob

Jon calls a spade a spade. His issue is with the people that see a spade and call it Hitler. Civility and brutal honesty can go hand in hand. It's not hypocrisy.

Jon was GREAT on LKL. Just what I needed after a hard day at work. Love his attitude, civility, sense of humor, and his hair. Haters just don't understand. You have to have an above-average IQ to get his sense of humor. Keep up the good work.

By Apostate

Precisely! *Raucous applause*

we need to restore the santity because the republican/tea party have scared all the white people ...."take back our country"....from who ...you dumb a**es....

By keeslver

I just saw a new study that shows that when a person watches FOX News their IQ drops 50 points. It is no wonder the Fox News channel has high ratings. The idiots er, I mean consevatives, who watch do not know how to use the remote so the TV stays on one channel and never leaves.

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