Apparently, much of the programming at Fox News is to be taken as seriously as a Comedy Central roast.

That's the takeaway from Chris Wallace's interview with Jon Stewart on Fox News Sunday.

Stewart told the Fox host that the “designed ideological agenda” at Fox News helps create the “most consistently misinformed media viewers” in America. Wallace, Stewart pointed out, serves as the network's “counterweight” to Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, explaining that “otherwise it's pure talk radio and it doesn't establish the type of political player” that Fox is designed to be.

Wallace tried to turn the tables, arguing that Jon Stewart himself serves as a “counterbalance” to the programming at Comedy Central, programming that Wallace illustrated with footage from the 2005 Comedy Central roast of actress Pamela Anderson, in particular, comedienne Lisa Lampanelli riffing on Anderson's sex life with Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.

Chris Wallace demonstrated that a comedy channel is biased toward humor. That is quite different than a so-called news channel demonstrating a persistent partisan bias.

The criticism of Fox News is not that it fails to live up to a subjective standard of artistic quality; it's that the channel fails at the objective standard of truth, and that Fox passes itself off as a news outlet while pursuing a clear partisan agenda.

The criticism of Fox News is that the managing editor of its Washington bureau has repeatedly used his position at Fox to slant the network's news coverage to the right. The criticism of Fox News is that it serves not as a news organization, but as an organizing arm of the Republican Party. The criticism of Fox News is that it endorses the most extreme and reckless rhetoric.

The criticism of Fox News is not addressed by showing Comedy Central footage from six years ago.