In the Washington Post, Richard Moran has a column portentously titled, "Jon Stewart, Enemy of Democracy?". It begins:

This is not funny: Jon Stewart and his hit Comedy Central cable show may be poisoning democracy.

Two political scientists found that young people who watch Stewart's faux news program, "The Daily Show," develop cynical views about politics and politicians that could lead them to just say no to voting.

According to Wikipedia (and yes, take it for what it's worth), The Daily Show averages 1.5 million viewers nightly. If that's a million and a half young, underinformed cynics of college age (but I repeat myself in triplicate) who consider The Daily Show to actually be news and then decide not to vote, Stewart has done the nation a great service. We salute him.

(And besides, every once in a blue state moon, he's capable of broaching a topic avoided by real reporters who no longer care to do their jobs.)

Update: Allah agrees: "Making jaded hipsters less inclined to vote is really more of a feature than a bug, isn’t it?" Exactly.

Another Update: Ed Morrissey adds, "Poking fun continuously without ever taking responsibility to advance some rational agenda as an alternative amounts to a form of political cowardice". Exactly.