I think so. I’m not college aged and I do read newspapers and watch (what passes for) news, and I’ve definitely learned more about some political issues from his show than others. Both shows have also sent me to Google more than a few times to learn more about a person or a topic discussed that I was only passingly familiar with before.
While I realize that it’s ultimately entertainment, I absolutely unapologetically consider it more of a news show than most news shows. Case in point: I’ll never forget 26 September 2006 (though I had to research the date). That night on CNN Larry King did his umpteenth Anna Nicole show (this was shortly after Daniel died and was already far from Larry’s first show on the topic). Anderson Cooper did something only slightly less vacuous and on FOX it was same old same old O’Reilly and Hannity nonsense. Jon Stewart meanwhile was interviewing Pervez-fucking-Musharraf!. Not only was he interviewing Musharraf- his first question was to ask him where Osama bin Laden was! (Even real journalists pussyfooted around that subject.)
Now while he obviously didn’t expect Pervez to say "He’s in a cave at these coordinates, it took balls. Also, the rest of the interview had some humor, but it was not filmed for laughs- it was about real issues. He even took Pervez to task somewhat for not doing more to aid in the destruction of al Qaeda.
Nothing like the balls Colbert showed at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, however. There could have been no higher a compliment to Colbert’s speaking truth to power than the hiring of Rich “He’s still alive?” Little and his 30 years out of date Sunshine Senior Cruise worthy material the next year. Stewart and Colbert have more intelligence and more balls than any journalist alive.
I think they’ve definitely brightened the spotlight on our imbecilic media (even semi sacred cows like Anderson Cooper [who’s really not as much above Larry King and Nancy Grace as people give him credit for- he’s cuter than he is deep]). They’ve also done some fantastic bonafide news coverage: when Cheney said in the 2004 election that he’d never met John Edwards because he was so seldom in the Senate, it was The Daily Show that opened the next night with footage of them sitting next to each other in the Senate.
Both shows also call shenanigans on things that should have shenanigans called.
Their montages are inspired as well. Rosa Parks’s comes to mind. She truly was an American icon, but she was also almost evicted from her apartment two years before her death for non payment of rent (she wasn’t indigent but she was mentally incompetent due to age and health problems and her estate was being mismanaged) and during those problems no politician seemed to give a damn and even zillionaire entertainers let it slide, but of course when she died it was NECROPHILICON 2005 as everybody from Bush to Delay (they had by far the best coverage of his investigation/indictment incidentally) to the media to the entertainment community humped cameras covering themselves in ashes as the media, which had ignored her problems in recent years, broke into the opening number of Evita ('Requiem aeterna Doña Rosita… requiem aeterna…"). The “legitimate” news shows would show things like Tom Delay [practically Rosa’s adopted son, y’know] comparing his plight to her’s 50 years before (which he I swear to God did) and Bush and other right wingers and airheaded lefties pandering in their designer sack cloth as if these s.o.b.s were being sincere, while The Daily Show had the balls (and imho the class) to run a montage of these attention whores using the funeral for their own agendas and to be the centers of attention and called them on it.*
Another example was when Stewart showed a right wing she-imbecile discussing how gays should not be foster parents due to their higher incidences of molesting children and violence and the like, all things that stem from Paul Cameron bullshit writings (if you’re not familiar just google him or do a SDMB search) and which is just objectively and easily provably wrong. Stewart stopped the tape and explained why this is discredited rubbish and made some comment like “and of course the anchors at CNN could see right through this as well”. When he returned to the footage it was of the anchors saying “Well, she makes some interesting points, but I’m not sure I agree…” and that was it. She didn’t correct the woman, she didn’t say “you’re absolutely wrong”, obviously wasn’t informed in the least on the matter even though it was the subject of the interview and she should have done her homework, etc…
A demonstrable effect of TDS & COLBERT incidentally is their affect on book sales. Oprah has the power to elevate a book to the #1 spot of course, but almost always novels or self-help stuff. TDS & Colbert aren’t far behind her, however, as they are two of the only people on TV who routinely interview authors and unlike Oprah it’s usually authors of well researched “serious” non-fiction. Whenever either’s had an author on, look at the Amazon sales ranks the next day- it will always be many places higher. (What’s especially great about their author interviews is that it’s always clear that they have either actually read the book or at very least read a thorough treatment of it.)
Things like that are what I love about TDS & COLBERT. They call “bullshit” at things real news shows should do but don’t (supposedly in the interest of objectivity but I think it has a lot more to do with cowardice) is remarkable. As far as it’s effect on college age students, I think it is as close to advocating critical thinking as TV news coverage comes. If Jonathan Swift were alive today he’d be a Daily Show correspondent.
*My own personal favorite Rosa Parks NECROPHILICON moment was all the damned cartoons showing her riding the front of a bus to heaven. In all of them either St. Peter or God or some Angel was the bus driver or met her at the desk. In all of them St. Peter or God or some Angel was white.
