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Wal-Mart irked by fake picture of naked judges

First he provoked the ire of the entire US media establishment; now he has run into trouble with the world's most powerful retailer.

Jon Stewart, the comedian who used a live CNN talkshow, Crossfire, to attack the "partisan hackery" of America's political journalism, has offended Wal-Mart with the contents of his new book about American history.

The supermarket chain has banned Stewart's satirical textbook, America, from its stores because it contains a fake photograph of the members of the US Supreme Court in the nude. "We felt the majority of our customers would not be comfortable with it," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk.

The store, which is responsible for 20 percent of all books sales in the US, was unaware of the book's contents when it purchased tens of thousands of copies.

The photograph is clearly fake and shows the heads of the nine Supreme Court justices grafted on to bodies taken from ClothesFree.com, a nudist Web site.

It also supplies cut-out judicial robes and invites readers to "restore their dignity by matching each justice with his or her respective robe."

The spat will only add to Stewart's popularity among twentysomething iconoclasts, though it was already sky-high after his run-in with CNN.

In a live television exchange destined to be reshown ad infinitum, he accused the two hosts of the cable news channel's Crossfire show, Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, of failing in their responsibility to inform the public discourse.

Carlson, a well-known Republican supporter, responded by calling Stewart the "butt boy" of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and said the comedian's job was not to pass judgment on journalists but to be funny.

A clearly furious Stewart then called Carlson "a dick" -- a first for US television audiences.

Wal-Mart has a history of banning products from its stores. It does not stock "lads' mags" such as Maxim and, in 1996, refused to sell a Sheryl Crow album because it contained lyrics which suggested Wal-Mart sold guns to children. Last year it withdrew a "pregnant" doll after complaints from right-wingers.
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