Jon Stewart Gives Bill O' Reilly A Verbal Beating on "The Factor"

For anyone who likes to keep tabs on the culture war that is brewing like a proverbial pot of tea, there was a fierce battle that occurred this past week when Jon Stewart headed down to “The Factor” to face off with Bill O’ Reilly. The debate consisted of this: Jon Stewart would do about three jokes and then hit O’ Reilly with unequivocal logic, then O’ Reilly would come back with loud, guttural shouts and the insane idea to run for President with Stewart as his VP. Luckily, O’ Reilly has a great editing team so it looked as if he won some of debate. But luckily, we have some unedited footage to take a look at. To see for yourself, make the jump!

O’ Reilly did his best to belittle the 5’4″ comedian last Thursday (and the demographic that watches him), but Stewart is no stranger to the idea of self-deprecation. He would spin every insult into a joke that would make O’Reilly look like a schoolyard bully. Here’s the transcript version of the first exchange verbatim from Foxnews.com

O’REILLY: You know what I notice when I do your program, I go over and the audience, they love President Obama. Your audience, the guys who sit in the little bleachers…

STEWART: That’s right.

O’REILLY: For them, it’s like going to Lourdes to go on your show because they know they’re going to get…

STEWART: Many have been healed.

But for anyone who knows the “crazy antics” of Fox News, we’re well aware of the power of editing. For the most part, many of the most acerbic comments made by Stewart were left on the cutting room floor. However, O’ Reilly did have the brass ones enough to put the entire debate on the Fox Website. Upon perusing Foxnews.com, it seems as if the video stream to watch the entire thing is mysteriously malfunctioning. Coincidence? You decide. The link to the video is here.

Luckily, Keith Olbermann got a chance to put some of the unedited footage up on Countdown. Here’s his take on some of the unedited material.

For anyone who’s a fan of O’ Reilly, he clearly won each and every point. For fans of Stewart, this is proof positive that we are gaining traction. I’m just grateful that at least there is some type of dialogue going on that might one day bridge the chasm of the culture war.

The full, unedited version of the show can be seen on the next page.