Reply #64: This is what I think too. Although I would go a step farther - they were [View All]

[glitch]

part of his act. Not intentionally, but he knew how they would react to his words and he played them, brilliantly, like a violin section.
He turned his parody of them into a big mirror and reflected them back onto themselves. And they performed their role as corrupted journalists to afraid of power to laugh at themselves perfectly, as they had to.

If I were him, my biggest fear would've been that they would laugh and ruin the act.

But they didn't, and so Stephen soared.