This past week Jon Stewart appeared on one of the final episodes of his former writer and good friend Stephen Colbert’s show The Colbert Report. The interview was naturally full of levity, stereotypically Republican criticisms of Stewart and Stewart-esque rebuttals grounded heavily in Jewish culture. As a white, Jewish, politically conservative male at Brandeis, naturally I found the segment to be hysterical. 

There was, however, one sequence that shook me to my overeducated, politically semi-active, core. Colbert poses the following question to Stewart: “Now as a liberal lion, Jon, as the voice of the left, you know more young people get their news from you…” Stewart immediately jumps in, “Most young people. 87 percent of young people get all of their news from me.” 

The accompanying meme of this sequence promptly made its way around the various social media sites with shares, likes and comments galore. One commenter on the Facebook page for The Colbert Report even describes the research paper she wrote about Jon Stewart’s positive effect on the American democratic process. 

Perhaps the best way to highlight the inherent yet massive problem that such a statistic poses to the American democratic process is to quote Stewart himself in his 2006 appearance on the now-defunct CNN show Crossfire. Stewart goes on one of his usual candid yet facetious rants about the harm modern media is doing to America—how ratings-driven, intentionally politicized and polarized programs are breaking the very fiber of a healthy democracy. 

One of the hosts of Crossfire immediately tries to jump in and call a double standard—after all, says the host, Stewart does the same exact thing. 

Stewart replies, “If you want to compare your show to a comedy show, you’re more than welcome to.”

Excellent point Jon! You are the host of a comedy show, featured at the late night slot, on the premier cable comedy channel Comedy Central. You, Mr. Stewart, are quite realistic and honest with what kind of show you are presenting: a satirical and cynical comedian’s take on the news—not objective news by any stretch of your vibrant imagination. 

The fact that your audience, the millennial college-aged people you refer to in your interview with Colbert, do not realize this fact is quite disheartening and extremely distressing. 

In May 2006, two political scientists from East Carolina University, Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris, published an extensive research study on what they coin as the “The Daily Show Effect.” They set out to quantify what exactly the effect of The Daily Show, and other similar programs like The Colbert Report, Letterman and Saturday Night Live have on the American political process. Their conclusions are extensive—but overwhelmingly negative. 

Perhaps most notable, at least for the sake of this op-ed, is their final conclusion: “We found that exposure to The Daily Show increased internal efficacy by raising viewers’ perception that the complex world of politics was understandable. Stewart’s style of humor paints the complexities of politics as a function of the absurdity and incompetence of political elites, thus leading viewers to blame any lack of understanding not on themselves, but on those who run the system. In presenting politics as the theater of the absurd, Stewart seemingly simplifies it.” In summation, Stewart’s viewers think they have a sound understanding of a complex issue, come to an overtly cynical conclusion based on the oversimplified understanding of the issue and then apply the cynicism—again based on nothing but a few minutes of a comedy show—to the overall political process. 

Let’s then revisit the 87 percent of young people who turn to The Daily Show for their news. If we combine this number with the findings of “The Daily Show Effect,” then presumably 87 percent of the millennial generation, my generation, the generation that is supposed to pursue a flourishing free marketplace of ideas and academia, is forming their political opinions based on minute clips from a comedy show. Yelp. 

But let’s give our generation the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Stewart’s 87 percent statistic is simply too high; reasonable argument, since I could not find Stewart’s source anywhere on the internet. 

What I could find, though, is a recent Pew Research Center study from this past October, that places The Daily Show as the only “news outlet”—out of a list of over 35—that is fully trusted by the left, and completely distrusted by the independent and right. So even if the number of millennials that Stewart cites is too high, he is still, at the very least, a trusted news source of the liberal left. With college aged kids statistically identifying as liberals, Stewart’s 87 percent number may not be so far off from the truth. 

How, then, do we force the millennial generation to think critically about the “liberal lion” that is Jon Stewart? Some have argued for further context on behalf of Stewart and his writers while others have called for Stewart to simply enter the mainstream news media, most notably with Meet the Press tapping Stewart as a potential host. Perhaps though, the answer is far simpler. 

Instead of forcing Stewart to enter the news space by adding context or altering his medium, maybe we millennials should just realize what we are doing, and what should be done. 

Viewers should form opinions individually, grounded in fact—not based on what a major corporation or network has decided is the easiest way into your pocket. Sounds a lot like the standard Stewart argues our politicians should be following—maybe Stewart’s got me too.