Poll: 82% agree with Jon Stewart on key political issues
Date published: April 9, 2012
Jon Stewart is a political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is widely known as host of The Daily Show, a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central. The show is also popular with Political.com voters, as 81% tune in very frequently, and 14% watch somewhat frequently.
Stewart has gained acclaim as an acerbic, satirical critic of personality-driven media shows, in particular those of the US media networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. 81% of voter respondents agree very often with Jon Stewart’s opinion on key political issues, and 58 percent feel his views represent the majority of Americans, while 26% disagree and 16% are unsure. 44% of voters believe his political ideology to be moderate, while 47% consider his political leanings to be liberal.
Critics say Stewart benefits from a double standard, as he critiques other news shows from the safe, removed position of his "fake news" desk. Stewart agrees, saying that neither his show nor his channel purports to be anything other than satire and comedy. However, 92% of Political.com respondents think that The Daily Show is a reliable source of news content, despite its satirical nature. In spite of its self-professed entertainment mandate, The Daily Show has been nominated for news and journalism awards.
A whopping 96% also believe that Americas benefits from having Jon Stewart’s voice in the political arena, and 60% of voters believe he could win an election for national public office, while 24% disagree and 16% are undecided on his electability.
This poll was conducted online among 8,969 adults nationwide. After the poll was completed, the data was processed through a weighting program to insure that the sample reflects the overall population in terms of age, race, gender, political party, and other factors. The processing step is standard among polling agencies and is necessary because different segments of the population may answer more than others.
