'NYT' Sunday Preview: Major Profile of Jon Stewart

The lead Jon Stewart piece -- blessed with a nearly-half page opening photo -- in The New York Times' Arts & Leisure section tomorrow poses the question in its headline, "Is This the Most Trusted Man in America?"

The answer from writer Michiko Kakutani is yeah, maybe, since The Daily Show is now "a genuine political and cultural force."

That's partly because other cable news shows have been "larding" their coverage with missing teens, celebs, "bloviation" and fake news while the proudly fake news Daily Show sticks to "super-depressing" important issues.

Kakutani claims that Stewart, indeed, speaks "truth to power," even while he claims to only "throw spitballs." He is a rare, non-ideological "sane voice" in the "noisy red-blue echo chamber." A colleague says he "really does care."

Stewart says he looks forward to end of the Bush administration "as a comedian, as a person, as a citizen, as a mammal."

The spread includes vintage photos of Stewart with Stephen Colbert -- and Steve Carell with John McCain in 1999. The reporter -- a longtime Times book reviewer -- offers a tour of the offices and reviews the work routine.

Stewart concludes, in analyzing his own show, "Like pizza, it may not be the best pizza you've ever had, but it's pizza, man, and you get to have it every night."
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Greg Mitchell's new book includes chapters on Stewart and Colbert. It is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.