Jon Stewart: America's most influential TV personality

[LongTomH]

Great op-ed from the Guardian America website: How a satirist became America's most influential TV personality

For Barry McKernan and Saavik Ford, academics who live with their baby son in New York, sitting down to the television news is a nightly ritual, as it has been for generations of families. But there the tradition ends. Instead of watching heavyweight presenters dispense news from on high, the couple switch to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, known for delivering stories with lacerating humour and an inbuilt bullshit detector. They know Stewart will part politicians from their reputations with laser-like precision, while simultaneously rubbing the media's nose in its own deference. And, more importantly, they trust him.

'The Daily Show is probably more reliable for news than anything on TV except PBS ,' said McKernan, 36, who teaches astronomy at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. 'It stands apart from everything else because it unspins the news. It frankly points out how ridiculous the 24-hour news networks are - mostly gassing away by unqualified 'experts' filling the hours.'

The real red meat and hot sauce comes further down in the piece:

Stewart's admirers in the political and media classes are legion. David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker magazine, told The Observer: 'He is our most astute - and, obviously, most hilarious - press watchdog and overall political bullshit monitor. His most effective move is to cull through the tapes of all the countless banalities, hypocritical contradictions and attempted snow-jobs executed in boundless profusion on our airwaves and on political podiums. He just puts them on the air and you watch with slack-jawed amazement.'

<snip>

The Daily Show also satirises American media with its cliches, hang-ups and petty obsessions. For those who accuse Rupert Murdoch's Fox News of being a partisan Republican mouthpiece, there seemed to be no antidote until The Daily Show came along. It also strikes a chord with those who feel the 24-hour news channels hype every gaffe into a hurricane and despair of US newspapers as their circulations fall and they lay off staff.

[Shiver]

1. Best coverage on TV

A pity he has only half an hour, four nights a week.

Stewart/Colbert '16!

[classof56]

2. Stewart/Colbert '16. Now that's the ticket!

Or Colbert/Stewart. Either way's a winner in my book. Bless 'em both for helping keep me sane the past few years. Long may they wave!

Tired Old Cynic

[Shiver]

3. Stewart/Colbert is more practical

Jon has more experience, and Stephen fits the attack-dog VP mold nicely.

I can already see the Cabinet... Sec. of Defense Riggle, Sec. of State Bee, Attorney General Oliver...

[FirstLight]

4. mmmmm...MMMMM !! Intelligent, witty, cute in a jewboy kinda way...

I loves me some Stewart! :love:

ANd I get most of my news here at DU, watch important speeches on Cspan, catch important other stuf on youtube...but Jon baby, I love to see him EVERY night he is on.

[Skittles]

5. Stewart / Colbert ain't just comedy

for those of us starving for real news, oddly enough it is Stewart and Colbert that deliver