IT IS THE CLOSEST THING TO THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW ON TV, AND IT'S HILARIOUS

Daily Show viewers have greater awareness of what's going on in the presidential campaign than viewers of any other programs -- including the national news. I think this is pathetic, but not that people are getting informed by the smartest comedy show of recent years. What's pathetic is how much better it is at doing serious analysis of the issues and spin than the network news (and cable news networks) try to do.

I was a budding young news junkie in the 1980s; glued myself to ABC News for senate elections in '86, watched CNN all of the time when I finally got cable. If I watch CNN now more than once a month, it's unusual; the network has gotten worse at informing and reporting. I still read plenty of newspapers (moreso online), but find the "serious" news organizations to be a good deal less serious than they used to be. Jon Stewart is Walter Cronkite compared to Aaron Brown or Brian Williams; he's capable of asking questions about the big picture, not talking points.

The sad thing about Dan Rather getting flummoxed in the memo scandal is if he goes, he'll actually be replaced by someone less in touch with the important stories facing the nation. Now that CBS has shelved Ed Bradley's story on WMD in Iraq until after the election (heaven forbid the electorate is informed about why the United States has allowed a thousand of its citizens to die over the past couple of years) it has effectively castrated itself to support Bush at a time the media perceives CBS is attacking Bush. Could Karl Rove be behind this? Naw.