Stewart is a comedian with a brain. He never claims to be anything but a comedian. His brand of comedy is social satire. His favorite target, the media.

He lampoons himself constantly, to remind us…he is just a comedian. And the unspoken but all too clear punch line is constant: I may deliver some funny lines, but I will never be able to be as funny as the insanity all around you that masks itself as "serious" journalism.

And he proves his point, sometimes ad nausium. But often in a manner that is far more paletable then what others offer. If CNBC or FOX News or anyone else wants to shut Stewart up…the method is simple. Be serious in doing your jobs and actually try to fix problems instead of manuevering for the best sound bite or jumping on band wagons.

Stewart is a reality check…yes he goes after Obama, but with a solidly grounded view of reality…that after 8 weeks in office, blaming this one guy for a problem that took 8 years of Bush Administration to create is nothing but BS. Because he does not bow in blind reverance to authority simply because it is labeled authority. He is the voice of the average persom with a brain who realizes that media and politics is filled with people who think they are PT BArnum and we in real world have not the brains to realize the totality of their BS.

Stewart is the first to make it clear that he is NOT brilliant. That he is NOT a reporter. And in that point, he does the most simple and obvious thing a prson can do, by turning around and saying…if you are THAT brilliant, if you are a real reporter, then why is it you can not see the innate contradiction? Why aren;t you asking the real questions and fighting to find the real answers?

Its a comentary for our times….that a comic can see the duplicity of things more clearly then some of the most learned people in our society. And much like the Washington Post used to say…if you don;t get it, you don' get it.

Stewart is the first to make it clear that he is NOT brilliant. @exiled in dc: You could have boiled your dissertation down to this one statement…."Stewart is the first to make it clear that he is NOT brilliant." So stop wasting our time……

HP- clearly not everyone has your great capacity to grasp the truth of things from a single statement.

For the video of Scarborough describing the Daily Show (and calling Jon Stewart and ideologue) go here:
http://gotchamedia.blogspot.co.....ng-up.html

Partisan show? Yes, it is. But what that has to do with the current conversation about Stewart and CNBC?

It's about a network pandering to the Wall Street kings, and supposedly financial experts that never alerted of the structural weaknesses of the financial system. And it's not unfair to judge them so harshly if they boast themselves as financial psychics. And in the same way that they did'n alerted us, they are not offering any solutions, so much for the experts.

Yes Bush, Obama, right, left… this is not a product of a single administration, Bush helped, but the structural problems weren't corrected (were even amplifyed) by democrat and republican administrations alike -and lobbied congressmen and senators of BOTH parties.

Are were going to say that to point out mistakes and vices in financial journalism is a left-wing strategy? That if you are republican you have to defend the Wall Street greed or their friends in the mainstream media?

Sorry, but I don't think so.

Stewart is obviously quite firmly on the left, but I'd say he's always been much more ideological than partisan. For example, the show has recently been slamming Obama's foreign policy rhetoric and policy in fairly harsh terms by showing how similar much of it is to Bush's.

And while Scarborough is lot smarter and more reasonable than, say, an O'Reilly or Hannity, his calling someone else out as an ideologue is pot/kettle/black territory. Please find me a actual policy position where his opinion diverges from the WSJ editorial page or the Club for Growth.

Stewart needs to look like he is "cool". That requires acting as an Obama attack dog going after Obama enemies in his mind. He never risks a stance that would encourage left-wing outrage. Very predictable.

It goes to show you that the right doesn't get that people can be funny and also make a statement. I don't believe that Scarborough even realizes that Stewart is a comedian doing a comedy show about topical subjects. He is not O'reilly or Limbaugh or Olbermann or even Maddow, so he can afford to be subjective instead of trying to present himself as objective. I hope you guys get it also. He is just a comedian, a very intelligent and funny one at that.

I love the Daily Show it isn't easy to find the intelligent humor in politics especially the last 5 years or so and Jon Stewart looks soo cute doing it!

@getreal: I still think Ann Coulter is cute, but, "each to his own" as the women said when she kissed the cow.

By the way, forget Cramer's opinion (and Stewart's opinion of Cramer's Opinion), a survey of economists released today give the Obama administration an 'F' on their efforts to fix the economy.

See the following WSJ article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....86261.html

jon stewart is funny, and i think that's all he wants to be. no hidden agendas. the politician who is easiest to laugh at will be made fun of, usually by video of him/her saying whatever it is that they deny saying. the best thing about stewart is he says things the 'true' journalists should be. thank goodness maddow's on the scene.

@weezy: Stewart and Maddow, bird of a feather. (even look a bit alike)