In last week’s column, I mentioned what is the most honest news show on television (even though it’s not a news show).

Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show,” I wrote, “hold up a light to the bizarre nature of the current political debate.”

Today, New York magazine publishes a profile of Stewart in a story that reminds us again how politics and television journalism have become a joke. Never mind that the joke is on us.

In the profile, Brian Williams, anchor of the NBC Nightly News, describes his friend Stewart and the serial melodrama that some call TV journalism: “Jon has chronicled the death of shame in politics and journalism. Many of us on this side of the journalism tracks often wish we were on Jon’s side. I envy his platform to shout from the mountaintop. He’s a necessary branch of government.”

Once upon a time, TV journalists accepted the responsibility to call politicians to account for their duplicity and hypocrisy. Now, in pursuit of ratings, it’s all-dogma-all-the-time – and the job of honest reporting is left to comic Jon Stewart.

BTW, “The Daily Show” this month won the Emmy as the best comedy, music or variety show on television.

You can read the New York magazine profile here.

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