O'Reilly proved wrong about its
The two shorter stories in question followed by my analysis.
Comedy Central Unspins O'Reilly
Determined not to be caught up in a spin zone created by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, Comedy Central on Monday refuted O'Reilly's assertion that the audience for the network's The Daily Show was composed of "stoned slackers." The channel extracted data from Nielsen Media Research to indicate that Daily Show host Jon Stewart's viewers are more likely to have completed college than O'Reilly's. O'Reilly made his remarks when Stewart appeared on his show a few weeks ago. "You know what's really frightening?" O'Reilly said. "You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary, but it's true. You've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night and they can vote." O'Reilly is due to face the slackers directly when he appears on Stewart's show on Oct. 7.
'Daily Show' Viewers Among Best Informed Voters
Concerns that people who receive their political information from late-night comedy shows may not be adequately familiar with the issues in order to vote knowledgeably appeared to be laid to rest Monday by a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey. In a poll conducted between July 15 and Sept. 19, nearly 20,000 young adults were asked six questions about the presidential candidates' stands on various issues. Those who watched no late-night comedy shows answered 2.62 questions correctly. David Letterman's viewers answered 2.91; Jay Leno,'s 2.95; and Jon Stewart's (The Daily Show) 3.59. The results for Stewart appeared particularly striking to the pollsters, who noted that his viewers "have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers."
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Now, here's what I find interesting... O'Reilly was criticizing the Daily Show for being dopey, when Jon Stewart asks some of his guests damn hard questions... he has openly attacked some of his guests, like Stephen Hayes and Harry Bonilla, and Jon Stewart's take on Talking Points is the hallmark of well-researched satire. You generally don't learn things from dopey shows. I am willing to admit that it is silly at times, especially the correspondent pieces, but Jon Stewart and Lewis Black at the desk... well, you see some of the nitty gritty of American political life.... and sometimes you need a source that is not part of the establishment to shed light on the corruption in the system(and I am talking about network news as well as politics there).