Stewart blasts Fox's Megyn Kelly for parroting Hannity talking points

Fox News has often claimed that they provide "fair and balanced" news during 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. but Jon Stewart pretty much debunked that myth Wednesday. The Comedy Central host caught Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly repeating talking points from Fox News opinion personalities like Sean Hannity.

"To be fair, I have to remember what Bill O'Reilly told me when I was on his show about Fox. I believe he said to me, 'Jon, this whole network is a well orchestrated sham,'" joked Stewart.

"No. No. Wait. That's not what he told me. He said there's a separation between Fox news and Fox opinion. And the network did tell the New York Times that between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., that is their news time," explained Stewart.

Stewart made an example of one of Fox News' stars Megyn Kelly, who recently took the helm of a new show at 1 p.m. called America Live.

"Our mission is to get you the facts fair and balanced," claimed Kelly in one promo.

Fox news and Fox opinion seemed to have some of the same talking points following last Thursday's health care summit.

Here is how Sean Hannity covered the summit: "The majority of Americans are calling on president Obama and the Democrats to scrap the health care reform bill and start over."

"We have 73% of the people saying don't do this," Karl Rove told Hannity.

"The latest poll shows 58% disapprove of your health care plan," reported Fox opinion personality Glenn Beck.

But Megyn Kelly had some of the same phrasing. "Let's see how Megyn Kelly, anchor of a news show in the middle of the day, handles the subject," said Stewart.

"Public opinion polls are against this. They say start over. ... Seventy-three percent of people say scrap the bill," Kelly reported.

Kelly went on to interview "average Americans." All of them thought the bill should be scrapped.

"Wow. The only four people Megyn Kelly's two hour fair and balanced America Live news show randomly selected all agree that this bill is a terrible idea. She was actually going easy when she said the vast majority of people don't want this. Her research shows 100% of the American people don't want this," said Stewart.

"What exactly is your show balancing out? The ACORN News Network for Marxist revolutionaries?" Stewart wondered.

Kelly seemed obsessed with poll numbers claiming Americans want the bill killed. "70% of American people want Congress to ditch this bill," announced Kelly.

But Kelly sings a different tune when the poll numbers don't fit with her news networks' agenda. "Megyn Kelly knows you can't parse poll numbers. They are infallible. Even if in November of 2008 the numbers suggested that Barack Obama was going to win the presidential election," observed Stewart.

"You know, you've got to look at these poll numbers because Barack Obama tends to poll better than he performs," she said at the time. "The bottom line is don't trust the polls. With all respect to our pollsters, they might not tell us anything," Kelly flatly stated.

"Or they might tell you everything depending on your opinion of what the news should be," Stewart concluded.

This video is from Comedy Central's The Daily Show, broadcast March 3, 2010.