Think tank doubts folks get news from ‘Daily Show’

A journalism think tank studying “The Daily Show” doesn’t believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart – because otherwise they wouldn’t get the jokes.

The Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism asked its researchers to study a year’s worth of the Comedy Central series after hearing the frequent claim that many young people learn about the world from Stewart instead of more traditional news sources.

Tom Rosenstiel, the project’s director, says he doubts that’s the case.

“They’re not making jokes about Dan Quayle is dumb or Gerald Ford is clumsy,” Rosenstiel says. “They’re not making jokes that you could get if you live in the country but don’t read the news … .

“You can’t get the jokes if you’re not watching the news. The jokes are designed to make you think more about the news.”

While Stewart aims most of his firepower at Republicans, the show is actually pretty balanced in its bookings, the study notes. Of the clearly partisan guests, 15 were conservative and 18 were liberal.

That surprised him, Rosenstiel says: “I thought going in that there weren’t that many Republicans who would be willing to go on the show.”