In an interview with Jon Stewart earlier this month, Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly expressed dismay at the size of Stewart’s following and repeatedly characterized the audience of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” as “stoned slackers.”
Comedy Central for once wasn’t amused — stoned slackers, perhaps, not being a terribly-sought-after demographic for advertisers — and so slipped the Associated Press an interesting little statistic: according to Nielsen Media Research, Stewart’s viewers are actually more likely to have completed four years of college than those who watch O’Reilly’s show.
The AP story that ensued was pretty lighthearted. It did include, however, a line that nearly made us, as O’Reilly might put it, spill our bong water all over our laps.
Comedy Central had no statistics on how many people watch “The Daily Show” stoned.
Now there’s an oversight. Come on, Neilson — as long as you’re asking someone if they completed college, how hard is it to slip in, “Oh, yeah, and are you high right now?” We know, there might be some margin of error issues and stuff, but still.
In the meantime, and in the interest of fairness and balance, Campaign Desk confesses that we have no statistics whatsoever on how many stoned AP staffers might be banging away at the keyboard right this moment.
–Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.