The definition of journalism

Is Jon Stewart a journalist or a comedian? Can he be both?

The Daily Show may be a comedy fake news show but it has begun functioning almost like a journalistic fact check for many members of Mr. Stewart's audience. They like a smart guy who cracks jokes poking fun at our political system and its participants while also exposing their flaws. They like his refreshing bluntness and tongue-in-cheek repartee. What does it say about the state of cable news that some have started to look for the 'truth' in a comedy show?

I think this was highlighted in 2004 when Jon Stewart (not the Daily Show) took the hosts of Crossfire to task for their 'partisan hackery' (I think that's exactly how he labelled it) and told them to stop 'hurting America' in the now infamous interview. And it was a hugely successful critique, both in real time and the future: It's memorable when Tucker Carlson questioned Stewart on his soft-balling of John Kerry on the Daily Show, and was reminded that the Daily Show was on a comedy channel, was a fake news show preceded by prank-calling puppets. Crossfire was cancelled soon after and Stewart was referenced in the decision to pull the show.

We saw glimpses of the same this past week with Stewart and his crew hammering CNBC's terrible coverage of the economic world in the last couple of years. The culmination of three days of Santelli et. al. bashing was the interview (if we can call a mostly one-sided conversation that) of Jim Cramer on the Daily Show. Stewart lambasted Cramer, the entire CNBC crew, and implicated other financial news networks in a searing crossfire (pun intended), accusing them of complicity through their terrible reporting of financial markets and companies. Cramer was left sitting in a swamp of defeat and mea culpas. I especially liked when Stewart said the networks knew what was going in, in terms of hyper inflation and crazy odds, and did nothing, said nothing: "For now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Stewart and echo his frustration with the games played by various financiers and other complicit actors. And I agreed with his opposition to dumbed down, entertainment-centric news reporting. But what is the place of Jon Stewart in this debacle? Why does he adopt such a serious demeanour and eviscerate those who are, in his opinion, doing a disservice to America(ns)? He certainly has every right as a citizen of this country, but I am more interested in his role on television as a comedian. I ask this question because the only real criticism of Stewart that comes up in the media relating to this is his position of being able to question and then fall back into the seemingly impartial role of the comedian where he cannot be questioned because "its not real." Is this fair? I don't actually have an opinion on this question. So while personally I am very happy to see any talk of responsible journalism, especially in the arena of televised news which is so focused upon that distasteful word; infotainment, I am also unsure of who should be asking these questions.