Jon Stewart defended NPR from conservative criticism on Monday's "Daily Show."
The network is, of course, a favorite punching bag of the right. However, Stewart noted that NPR has recently severed its ties with two freelancers because they were affiliated with the Occupy movement. A hard-left network, he reasoned, would have been pleased that the two women were participating in such protests.
Stewart then played a year-old clip of Sean Hannity saying that government funding of NPR was unfair because the network was so politicized.
"How about taxpayer dollars fund my radio show?" Hannity asked.
"There's just one problem with that comparison: they're nothing like the same thing," Stewart responded. He spent the next few minutes shuffling back and forth between overheated right-wing talk show hosts and rather more muted NPR conversations. His essential point seemed to be that NPR mostly traffics in sleep-inducement rather than fear-inducement.
Stewart also recounted what he swore was a true story, in which, driving home from work, he switched back and forth between a Mark Levin rant and a "Fresh Air" conversation about ants. By the time he got home, he said, "I couldn't decide if the president was a secret Muslim or if he was a worker ant!"