[url]http://www.slate.com/id/2159920/entry/?nav=ais[/url]

[quote]The Fox News Channel makes its latest foray into the realm of farce and fake news on Sunday night with the premiere of The ½ Hour News Hour (10 p.m. ET). According to the elevator pitch, it's The Daily Show for conservatives. A [URL=http://youtube.com/watch?v=YjIfaMwIFxU]brief segment [/URL]of the show popped up on YouTube this week, and though it must have been intended as what we blue-state pansies would call an amuse-bouche, it looks more like a determined bid to lower expectations. The mind strains to conceive of political humor that might be less humorous—or, ultimately, less political. Hannity and Colmes trying "Who's on First"? Dennis Kucinich taking sledgehammer in hand to try Gallagher's act? Jimmy Fallon attempting a Thurmond-length filibuster?

The anchors of the News Hour are parked, "Weekend Update"-style, at a desk on a set evocative of The Colbert Report. He is Kurt Long; she is Jenn Robertson. His jacket bunches at the shoulder, and her hairstylist has acted with malice. The look is in keeping with the ostentatiously humble Fox News aesthetic—a signal that the on-air talent isn't putting on airs, that you're watching something as homey as the leading morning show in Tucson. Kurt leads off the leaked segment thusly: "Illinois Senator Barack Obama admits that as a teenager he sometimes used cocaine. This news sent Obama's approval rating among Democrats plummeting to an all-time low of 99.9 percent." This gets some in-studio laughter, and Kurt forges ahead. "But, in a related story, Senator Obama has just been endorsed for president by former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry."[/quote]

I can't watch it now, though. YouTube is blocked.