Taking comedy too
seriously

OF all the wacky cultural advances to emerge during this political season, one of the oddest has been the institutionalization of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" as a vehicle for news. The pols have been dead serious about being seen parked next to host Jon Stewart. Invaribly, they slip up and call Stewart a "journalist."

Listen up, Stewart says, it's a comedy show, not a news show.

What the White House calls the "filter" of news coverage is well in place at "The Daily Show" -- the show's writers sift through the news to find what's funny or simply absurd.

Even so, the show has become the primary source of news among a certain demographic. Fox's Bill O'Reilly paints Stewart's audience as "slackers and stoners." That didn't prevent him from appearing at Stewart's side to pitch himself at 20-something consumers.

In a bubbling exchange Friday on CNN's "Crossfire," the insufferably snarky Tucker Carlson berated Stewart for not grilling guests with "hard-hitting news questions."

Stewart fired back that "Crossfire" was simple-minded "partisan hackery" on what was supposed to be a news channel.

"You're on CNN!" Stewart cried. "The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls!"

And so goes the level of newly evolving public discourse as the fate of the world draws near.