Fact-checking O’Reilly’s interview of Jon Stewart

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and Daily Show host Jon Stewart traded wisecracks — and a few insults — in O’Reilly’s “No Spin Zone” on Feb. 3, 2010.

O’Reilly told Stewart that it was frightening that the Daily Show host had been called “an important cultural arbiter.” O’Reilly said that his audience is “primarily stoner slackers who love Obama,” but that “a lot of people don’t think you’re smart.”

Stewart shot back that O’Reilly was now the “voice of sanity” at Fox, which he likened to “being the thinnest kid at fat camp.”

At times, they got serious. We checked two claims from the interview.

* O’Reilly said a poll by a Democratic pollster found Fox News “is the most trusted news operation in the country.” We checked the poll and found he was right.

* Stewart complained the Republicans were being obstructionists to President Barack Obama’s agenda, and cited the GOP’s lack of enthusiasm for the economic stimulus even though one-third of it was for tax cuts. We found the actual figure, once you subtract the fix for the Alternative Minimum Tax, was 28 percent. Mostly True.