Jon Stewart Remembers Creepy Meeting With Roger Ailes in the ‘Bowels of Fox News’: ‘Yelled at Each Other for About an Hour’ | Video
Jon Stewart had an interaction with former Fox News president Roger Ailes that still chills him to the bone.
While speaking with Medhi Hasan on “The Weekly Show” podcast Thursday, the Comedy Central star explained that his presence was once requested for “one of those bananas-type meetings in the bowels of Fox News” with Ailes after he had guested on “The O’Reilly Factor.”
To hear Stewart tell it, “The Daily Show” host had gone after Ailes and his Fox News for the entirety of his run on the show and the late network president wanted thanks.
“I used to go on Bill O’Reilly’s show. Every now and again they would bring in the, you know, ‘clownish liberal’ – myself – and I would go on there,” he began. “And one day, one of the people came down and said Mr. Ailes would like to see you. And I thought, ‘Why? Geez, I didn’t even know he lived in the building.'”
Stewart continued: “We had to walk through the kind of ‘Get Smart’ — doors would open and shut. You didn’t really know where you were until you got into this one part of the building that was colder than the other parts of the building. You almost felt the hair on the back of your neck and the chill, and you could see everybody’s breath in this one part. And he and I yelled at each other in the office for about an hour. He wanted me to show appreciation to him, because without him I have no career. And I wanted him to stop poisoning the atmosphere around the country.”
“And harassing his blonde hosts,” podcast guest Mehdi Hasan chimed in.
Ailes also mentioned the meeting between the two in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter back in 2015 as Stewart’s time on “The Daily Show” was coming to an end. The then-president had a much cheerier perspective on the meeting.
“You can’t say that many negative things about people unless you’re really unhappy about something,” Ailes said. “I actually think he doesn’t dislike me. We met once or twice. I talked to him for an hour once in my office. I think he’s really smart, and he’s got a great future.”
Stewart and Hasan marveled at Ailes’ strategy for dealing with discourse and opposition from the left. It happens to be the same playbook used today by most of the right — most prominently by President Donald Trump and his supporters, they said.
“His methodology was: ‘I am going to discredit all of the institutions or any of the voices that may in any way harm my movement. I’m going to make sure that editorial authority is seen as elitism. I am going to exercise authoritarian control over my message machine,'” Stewart explained. “And that’s, I think, the genius of that movement.”
Hasan just went viral for debating a number of right-wing enthusiasts on Jubilee’s YouTube page earlier this month. He explained the difficulties that came with having those conversations because the people he was debating don’t play by the same rules.
“Liberals and Democrats and Leftists have got to understand that you are not on some ridiculous even playing field,” he said. “I’ve been hearing this since Donald Trump came down the escalator in 2015 – ‘just because they don’t play by the rules doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.’ No that’s exactly what it means!”
Watch the full “Weekly Show” episode below:
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