Last week, America tuned in to witness the end of an era. After over 16 years, Jon Stewart appeared for the final time as the host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show. The hour-long episode featured tearful farewells, cameos from past correspondents and politicians, an epic monologue from Stewart, and a performance from Bruce Springsteen. The episode brought in an impressive 3.5 million viewers, according to Deadline. So, what is it about Stewart that convinced so many to wish him farewell?
The answer is simple: people trust Jon Stewart. Despite the fact the show is satirical, and despite the fact Stewart is a comedian, people undeniably trust both the show and Stewart.
At first, it’s easy to wonder why one would trust a comedian for their daily news. Stewart’s first concern was to make his audience laugh. He did so by cracking jokes on the conservative right and everything they did. It is an undeniable fact that Stewart was biased. That is why America trusted him.
It’s an unfortunate fact that it’s almost impossible to find unbiased journalism. There the conservative Fox News types of the world, and there are the liberal Huffington Posts of the world with very few media outlets in between. Most pick the one that agrees with their personal views and stick with it. For those determined to form their own opinions, both are scoured until similar information aligns.
The sad aspect is that none of these journalistic sources owns up to the inflection in their own voice. Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” owned up to their own bias. Even in his last two weeks on air, Stewart relentlessly bagged on the current Republican presidential candidates. There was never any doubt to viewers that this was a left-leaning show.
In a world where it can feel like the truth is never told, there is a yearning for truth. Even those who seemingly do nothing to discover the truth, seek it. At the end of the day, most any American wants to flip on their television and be told some kind of truth.
On “The Daily Show,” Stewart was that, simply because he owned up to his opinions. He was the kind of man who said this is the news, this is my opinion of it, and I’m not going to ever lie and say my opinion is fact.
Staying true to form, in his final rant Stewart addressed that there are “three kinds of bull***t.” According to this monologue, Stewart warned viewers against the tendency of the media and politicians to make bad things sound good, hide important topics under frivolous ones, and claim that action can’t be taken for one task until another is tackled. Stewart gave viewers a simple solution, though, by saying, “the best defense against bull***t is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.”
Stewart showed America that the truth can be told so, in turn, America shared one truth with Stewart: his presence will be missed.
