(JNi.media) Some two weeks ago, a petition was launched on Change.org asking the Commission on Presidential Debates to invite former Daily Show host Jon Stewart to moderate one of the presidential debates in the fall of 2016. As the petitioners put it, “Jon Stewart is more than qualified to tackle the moderating job. Mr. Stewart has interviewed 15 heads of state, 22 members of the United States Cabinet, 32 members of the United States Senate, 7 members of the United States House of Representatives, and scores of other political leaders from this country and around the world while establishing himself as the most trusted person in (satirical) news.”
Americans trust Stewart more than anyone else in the media. Back in October 2014, Pew Research released a comprehensive ranking of trustworthy news sources, and fake news The Daily Show turned out to be trusted by more Americans than Bloomberg, the Economist, and Aljazeera. 64 percent of the people polled had heard of the Daily Show and 16% considered it a trusted news source about the government and politics. The Economist and Bloomberg only got trust levels of 12% and 11% respectively, Aljazeera America only 9%.
Of course, the same Pew poll found that CNN was trusted by 95% as a news source, ABC 94%, Fox News 93%, and the NY Times by 85%.
Still, according to the petition, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll reported that 52.1% of respondents agree that Stewart “generally shares [their] view of the world” on “some or most issues.”
The petition declares: “We ask that the Commission on Presidential Debates consider and provide the opportunity to Mr. Stewart to host one of the three major presidential debates directly preceding the 2016 election. We also wish for a public response to this petition.”
Go check it out…