The Fox News Deck

The Screentastic Mr. Fox

Shepard Smith of Fox News toured the fancy, new Fox News Deck. At first glance, I was waiting for someone to say, "Beam me up, Scotty!" But when you look further, there are some cool aspects and some ridiculous ones.

It is useful that at any time, they can put any of those screens on the air. They've changed the way they gather the news, by using new tools and software to quickly bring news stories to the public. It seems like a smart choice to try and fuse social media with television news, and we will see if it works. The hope is to connect with the social media world and gain the generations of viewers who use smartphones.

This all being said, I still think the whole room is ridiculous. The size of the monitors and computer screens is unnecessary. As Jon Stewart says on The Daily Show when he makes fun of this, "Our televisions are the same size because we still have the same TVs we had last week." I also enjoy when he says, "Hey Fox, I think you're fixing the non-broken part." So maybe they should be working on "fair and balanced" reporting instead of being "trained on this new software" for two weeks. Also, the way Shepard Smith reports this new, amazing room is a little insensitive. When he points out a picture of an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian woman, he says, "This happens to be a picture of a Palestinian woman having a beef with an Israeli soldier." Hmm... maybe not quite the right thing to say in that moment, Shep?

Watch the video of Jon Stewart tearing it apart:

ALSO LOOK AT HOW 90'S THIS JON STEWART IS

I have to repost this video for you all, because I need a second post and this is actually extremely hilarious.

If you're like me, you're a fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Granted, you might not have as much in common with the host of the universally acclaimed satire show, such as a dark and receding hairline, biting wit, or the short and wiry stature of Moishe the Frail Bagel Store Owner. But you do enjoy his Monday-to-Thursday beatdowns of everything wrong in the media, hypocritical in politics, or just bizarre in the world. Last night on the show he lampooned every part of Herman Cain's farewell speech, from his admission of using Pokemon lyrics to his shenanigans driving up to the podium. It was classic. Watch it with your eyes.

But the Jon Stewart we know now is vastly different from a Jon Stewart in Jon Stewart's past. Take a look at this, for example:

Look at that set! And look at Jon's black leather jacket! And what is baby-faced Conan O'Brien wearing? Is that a plaid flannel over a black shirt? Yes! This must be... oh man! Oh God! This must be the 1990s! This is actually 1994, back when Jon had a show on MTV called (uninterestingly) The Jon Stewart Show. It was actually a competitor to Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and as you can tell one beat out the other. But can you blame Conan for beating out Jon back then? Seriously, look at that set design! What were they thinking?

Of course, we all know that Jon and Conan are on amicable terms. That is, unless you discount the mock feud between them and Colbert in 2007. That was funny.

Anyway, I wanted to share this with you guys. Also, the fact that Jon's head of hair has receded and turned gray since this video is making me queasy about the future of my own head. Don't leave me, beautiful hairline.