Black & white & red-faced

“The Daily Show” take on the NYT was gut-busting if cringe-inducing, and it only reinforced my sense that the staff no longer has any serious idea what goes on in the real world. How else to explain the photo that ran with the no-shit story on chickens as the leading cause of food poisoning? Those of us fresh from the theater are still trying to forget the sight of filthy birds, bones and guts too weak to support their hormonally inflated bulk, lying in their own manure in dark, disgusting sheds. And here we have three perky, healthy specimens free-ranging about to illustrate the dire findings. Of course, backyard chickens are trendy. Even Ruth Madoff is raising them. On thousand-dollar sheets. With round sunglasses.