Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?

NY Times ^ | 8/17/08 | MICHIKO KAKUTANI

[melt]

IT’S been more than eight years since “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” made its first foray into presidential politics with the presciently named Indecision 2000, and the difference in the show’s approach to its coverage then and now provides a tongue-in-cheek measure of the show’s striking evolution.

In 1999, the “Daily Show” correspondent Steve Carell struggled to talk his way off Senator John McCain’s overflow press bus — “a repository for outcasts, misfits and journalistic bottom-feeders” — and onto the actual Straight Talk Express, while at the 2000 Republican Convention Mr. Stewart self-deprecatingly promised exclusive coverage of “all the day’s events — at least the ones we’re allowed into.”

In this year’s promotional spot for “The Daily Show’s” convention coverage, the news newbies have been transformed into a swaggering A Team — “the best campaign team in the universe ever,” working out of “ ‘The Daily Show’ news-scraper: 117 stories, 73 situation rooms, 26 news tickers,” and promising to bring “you all the news stories — first ... before it’s even true.”

Though this spot is the program’s mocking sendup of itself and the news media’s mania for self-promotion, it inadvertently gets at one very real truth: the emergence of “The Daily Show” as a genuine cultural and political force.

When Americans were asked in a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press to name the journalist they most admired, Mr. Stewart, the fake news anchor, came in at No. 4, tied with the real news anchors Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS and Anderson Cooper of CNN. And a study this year from the center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded that “ ‘The Daily Show’ is clearly impacting American dialogue” and “getting people to think critically...

[wardaddy]

Stewart has good (great actually)delivery he’s just on the wrong side like most chosen

this time around though...I bet at least 25% of Jews go to McCain

it’s a start

i had a flat argument with a Jewish associate recently about how Jews could support Obama who was cozy with anti-Semites

the usual weak fear of the religious right and all that phantom shite...sad..tepid and canned

[DesScorp]

Stewart is a talented man, but face it, he’s a leftist working for a left-wing world. He just makes money off it in his comedy show.

[melt]

"I don’t know about that but in my mind the National Enquirer is now the Most Trusted Newspaper in America."

Walter Cronkite would turn over in his grave if he heard that.

Oh, wait--- he's not dead yet! Sorry, my mistake...

[Montanabound]

I looked it up. Leibowitz a/k/a Jon Stewart only averages about 1.5 million viewers.