Jon Stewart Needs a Moustache

I just read on the Intertubes that Jon Stewart is now the most trusted news anchor in the US. This was a poll conducted by Time, Inc.

"The most trusted man in America" was the mantle worn for years by Walter Cronkite, the recently deceased veteran newscaster who covered everything that was worth covering for most of my life.

I have to admit that Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" is the one "news" program my wife and I watch more than any other news program - real or not.

I love his slant on news, and more often than not, his righteous indignation concerning what happens in the news - usually involving our and other's governments.

Where Jon really shines in my estimation, is interviews. He constantly appears informed, insightful, probing, and seems genuinely interested in the topic/person being interviewed, and usually he really seems to have read the book they're talking about. Qualities and feelings he expresses we get from no other newscaster or organization, period.

I think it says something about Jon and the quality of his program, when the number two newscaster (also according to the same Time poll), Brian Williams, Head of News for NBC, has been a guest on The Daily Show probably more times than anyone else, news personality or otherwise. If there weren't at least a modicum of credibility, I seriously doubt whether Brian would waste his time, friends or not.

Fox News barely rates being called that. I think they have done more to rabble-rouse and allow some of the loudest buffoons in the land a pulpit from which they can lambaste virtually anyone and do so with the freedom to say anything and cloak it in the name of news. I think they are the opposite extreme of The Daily Show - and it ain't in the news direction.

CNN Headline News (now known as HLN) is better, but still strikes me as being more "show-biz" than news, regardless of what Robin Meade says.

Jon makes no bones about his being a comedian and frequently gets pissed when interviewees forget he's not a real newsman.

I guess the argument could be made that that gives him an unfair advantage. If so, then so be it. He's usually right in what he's "picking" on the bureaucrats about. I think the rules are the same for appearing on his show as on any other show, news or not - Do your homework. If someone shows up not fully prepared to spar with him, then they're fair game - and they should be.

Like I said, I'm comfortable with Jon's reportage of the day's events. I enjoy the humor and I appreciate the candor and point of view expressed on the show.

I trust him, his judgment, and The Daily Show as my primary source of news. I just wish he had a moustache.