On Tuesday’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Colbert kicked things off with a cold open gag that ditched the usual parody-of-current-events jokes for something a but more direct: A comparison of how Fox News personalities reacted to Joe Biden insulting Peter Doocy, and how Fox News reacted to the dozens and dozens of times Trump insulted people in the media.
According to Colbert, there’s a vast difference.
So to catch you up, on Monday there was an extremely silly controversy (at least among certain sectors of the media) after Joe Biden reacted to a question from Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy, by calling the son of longtime Fox News talking head Steve Doocy “a stupid son of a bitch.”
Seen in context it was really just razzing someone for asking a question Biden thought was stupid. But of course people acted as though Biden had somehow attacked the first amendment, and within a few hours Biden had called Doocy to apologize and “clear the air.” Read about it here.
So it is that on Tuesday, Colbert put the whole stupid thing in context with the aforementioned cold open gag.
First, a title card read “‘Fox and Friends’ Response to President Biden Calling Peter Doocy A ‘Stupid Son of a Bitch.’” This was followed by footage of the network’s morning hosts talking about it. “It did seem pretty personal, Peter Doocy’s father, Steve Doocy said. “It almost looks like polls are starting to get to him.”
Next, the title card said “And now, ‘Fox and Friends’ Response to the Former President Calling Jim Acosta a ‘Fake Reporter,’ Matt Bai a ‘dummy,’ Dean Baquet ‘one of the dumbest men in the world of journalism,’ Lisa Belkin a ‘low life,’ Carl Bernstein ‘a man who lives in the past and thinks like a degenerate fool,’ David Brooks ‘a clown,’ Frank Bruni ‘a dope,’ Mika Brzezinski ‘a ditzy airhead,’ Alyson Camerota a ‘disaster,’ Graydon Carter ‘grubby.’”
Then, a much much longer scrolling list of mean things Trump said about journalists followed, culminating with “and the press ‘The enemy of the people.’ And the Fox News clip? Completely unrelated nonsense.
Now, we don’t know that “Fox & Friends” never addressed Trump’s constant attacks on the media. But we do know that Colbert put together a pretty exhaustive selection of examples of Trump doing that, with the point being that Biden isn’t doing the same thing.
Watch the clip below: