Brett Berry Columnist

I cannot count how many times I've had the same debate with my fellow political junkies on campus. We go through the general issues of today, but we eventually arrive at the same place: discussing the sad state of most American media outlets. After we both vent a little frustration, I eventually raise the argument that Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is, sadly, probably the best place to get unbiased and unafraid news reporting and analysis.

Usually after saying that, most people look at me as if I were high on something - or at the least, I lose all credibility in my argument up to that point in their eyes. After all, anyone who thinks that "The Daily Show" is a good place for fair and informative news must be on something, right? According to Bill O'Reilly, I and anyone else who watches the show most likely is high.

About three weeks ago, "The Daily Show's" host, Jon Stewart, appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor." During the interview, O'Reilly told Stewart that it was "frightening" that his show had such an influence on the upcoming election. O'Reilly said, "You've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night ... and they can vote." Never one to shy away from pulling stats out of his ass, O'Reilly then stated that "87 percent (of "The Daily Show" viewers) are intoxicated when they watch."

Being a guest on O'Reilly's show, Stewart offered a light defense of his show and its viewers in his typical self-deprecating manner. Stewart called his show a "comedy show about things we care about, so naturally, it's informed by relevant issues and important information." Essentially, he let O'Reilly's insult to his show and audience roll off his back. Comedy Central, however, took offense, and they did some research about their supposed "stoned slacker" viewers.

First, Nielsen Media Research found that viewers of "The Daily Show" were more likely to have completed four years of college than viewers of "The O'Reilly Factor." That's funny; I always thought that the "stoned slackers" were the ones who didn't finish college. Maybe all of them just squeaked through college only to become lazy, ignorant adults. Not so, found another survey.

Last week, the Annenberg Public Policy Center released a survey of late night TV viewers and their knowledge of current political issues. This study found that "'The Daily Show' viewers have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers - even when education, party identification ... age and gender are taken into consideration."

That's right, "The Daily Show" viewers scored better on quizzes regarding current political issues even than people who watch cable news or read newspapers four or more times a week. Given a test of where the candidates stand on the issues, these viewers outperformed all others tested. Apparently, the viewers not only follow the news just as closely as other news watchers, but somehow they know more about what's going on. Not bad for a bunch of "stoned slackers."

What's more is that this study even found that the number of jokes made about each of the presidential candidates were exactly equal. Now that's what I call fair and balanced - both sides are equally subject to ridicule.

Still, people like Bill O'Reilly are terrified at the fact that Jon Stewart wields so much influence. After all, Newsday did name him the media figure with the most influence on this year's election. Sure, "The Daily Show" is a fake news program whose ultimate goal is a laugh. But is that really such a bad thing?

Nearly all of their jokes are predicated on a large knowledge of current events. And if you weren't aware of certain aspects of the issues being made fun of before the jokes, you were afterward.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see why it is so frightening that "The Daily Show" will have such a great deal of influence.

Any way in which potential voters can get honest information on the issues and the candidates works for me, even if it is based in comedy. Hopefully all of these "stoned slackers" watching the show really do have a direct effect on the upcoming election.

After all, come Nov. 2, I think it's a good thing that the people who are most well-informed on political issues are the ones who have the most power - not a group of ignorant people who have been boycotting France since March.

Brett Berry is a regional development junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.