'Daily Show' airs controversial segment on Washington football team

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Jon Stewart aired a controversial segment of the Daily Show where he had fans of the Washington Football team face Native Americans to discuss the offensive name.

On the show Thursday, Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones did a segment where he spoke to both Native Americans and fans of the Washington football team about the controversial name.

"We're not mascots," said the Native Americans in unison.

He then asked what the fans thought of the name "Redskins" and they maintained it was not offensive until the group of Native Americans came into the room.

The controversy came when the fans told the Washington Post they felt "ambushed" and felt they were in "danger" and "defamed."

Before airing the segment, Stewart made a disclaimer.

"We learned later that some of the individuals who participated in the piece, they didn't enjoy the experience. It's something that happens a lot less than you would think. But we take the complaint seriously. We generally don't want people who participate in the show to have a bad experience. We work very hard to find real people who have real beliefs and want to express those beliefs on television, and we work hard to make sure that the gist of those beliefs are represented accurately, albeit sometimes comedically on our program. If we find out that someone in a piece was intentionally misled or if their comments were intentionally misrepresented, we do not air that piece. We would not air that piece. So that being said, I hope you enjoy the following piece."

The owner of the team, Dan Snyder, has refused to consider changing the name and has been facing criticism from sectors including politics, the media and even cartoons.