First, Howie tries to insult Stewart:
KURTZ: The other night on "The Daily Show" Senator John Edwards. Why would a guy who is, you know, clearly planning to run as president come on and answer your inane questions?
If Kurtz would watch he'd know that Stewart is a far better interview than any of the monkeys on Howie's network.
Here's Howie not understanding the the show's producers are ultimately responsible for what goes on their networks:
KURTZ: What should happen to all of these experts who came and filled the airwaves with all of these predictions that turned out to be completely and totally wrong?
STEWART: Well, it's not their fault.
KURTZ: It's not their fault?
STEWART: No.
KURTZ: Shouldn't they have to resign from the talking head society?
STEWART: Shouldn't CNN have to pay a penalty for putting them on the air? You're Paulie Walnuts. You're vouching. You brought a guy in, and you put him on the air and you vouched. You said, "No, Tony, this guy, he's good people, he's credible." So whatever they say, I mean, they're called profilers.
If you watched the coverage, you would have thought that that's what the police do, is they literally have two guys sort of almost like psychics sitting around going, "What do you think he is?" "I don't know, maybe he's white, maybe he's black. Maybe he's with al Qaeda, maybe he's Son of Sam."
They're actually following real leads. I don't understand the idea of -- you know I heard a guy talking -- actually on your show -- saying, "Well, the public really wanted information. They had a real thirst for information. So because we didn't really have that much information, we had to just speculate."
KURTZ: We made it up. STEWART: Right. Which seems insane. That's like saying, "You know, the kids were real thirsty, and we didn't have any water, so we just gave them beer, because we figured that would work."
(LAUGHTER)
KURTZ: Well, you're right. The cable folks who put these folks in front of the camera have to bear some of the responsibility.
STEWART: Not some, all.
KURTZ: All right.
STEWART: Not some. They bear all of the responsibility. You cannot -- I'm not even sure what the reasoning was behind just putting people on who didn't know anything.
I mean, you know what was my favorite part was the hand wringing. People would do this, "Now, I know that we're not supposed to speculate, you know, obviously, people are nervous and it would be irresponsible to inflame passions by speculating, seriously, though, do you think it's terrorism?"
I mean, it was...
Here's Howie not understanding that Stewart does, in fact, run a comedy show:
KURTZ: I went to one of your tapings this week.
STEWART: Yes, you did.
KURTZ: And I can reveal -- can I say this?
STEWART: By the way, I didn't care for the heckling.
KURTZ: All right. I can reveal that all those -- you go to those live correspondent reports standing in front of the Capitol, out in North Carolina.
STEWART: That's exactly right.
KURTZ: They're right on the stage there with you.
STEWART: Yes.
KURTZ: Isn't that kind of dishonest?
STEWART: Our budget is to the point where we can only afford the picture of North Carolina. We can't actually afford the trip. So we put them in front of a just a green screen of that.
KURTZ: So you don't, you're not confusing yourself with a quote, "real journalist"?
STEWART: No. You guys are...
KURTZ: You're just making fun...
STEWART: You guys are confusing yourselves with real journalists.
KURTZ: Oh boy, you're loaded (UNINTELLIGIBLE) today.
And, I already put this up below, but here is Howie not understanding that journalists have an implicit responsibility:
KURTZ: There's a new thing out called...
STEWART: What?
KURTZ: There's a new thing out called remote control. We'll have to get you one.
STEWART: But you're the news. That works for entertainment. People need you. Help us. Help us.
Well, there's almost the whole thing. But read it! Read it! It's great. And I missed the goddamn replay.