Jon Stewart shaped cultural attitudes of a generation

Jon Stewart, who helped shape the political and cultural attitudes of a generation with some of the brainiest satire that television has ever seen, announced Tuesday that he will step down from his perch at Comedy Centrals The Daily Show later this year.

Its been an absolute privilege, said Stewart, who struggled with his emotions at times as he made the announcement at the end of his show Tuesday night. Its been the honor of my professional life.

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Hinting at the reason he is leaving, Stewart told the studio audience and the television audience beyond: This show doesnt deserve an even slightly restless host, and neither do you. An audience member cried out: We love you, Jon!

Whenever Stewart departs the show he has hosted since 1999, it will leave a major vacuum. What Walter Cronkite was to an earlier generation an utterly trusted voice Stewart has been to millennials. The key difference, of course, was that Stewart was schooled not in journalism but in comedy, and he was a purveyor, as he often reminded us, of fake news.

Yet the reality is that Stewarts devastatingly witty mock newscast-with-commentary often seemed closer to the truth than the news delivered with straight faces by sonorous network anchors. His stock rose as the medias credibility sank.

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Jon Stewart to depart The Daily Show later this year

Stewart told an audience at the taping of his show today that he would leave, and Comedy Centrals president confirmed it.

Indeed, in one of those you-cant-make-this-stuff-up coincidences, NBC News announced Tuesday night that anchor Brian Williams has been suspended by the network for six months without pay, after he admitted that his story about being in a helicopter that came under enemy fire in Iraq was false. (In keeping with his neither-fear-nor-favor approach, Stewart had lampooned Williams, who performed winningly during guest stints on The Daily Show, during Monday nights show. Commenting on the media feeding frenzy over Williams, Stewart remarked sardonically: Finally someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq war.)

Stewarts genius and for once that overused word is appropriate lay in the way he turned The Daily Show into must-see-TV by presiding over an ongoing counter-narrative to the official pronouncements of Washington policy makers and to the medias coverage of those pronouncements.

As The Daily Show won nearly two dozen Emmy Awards along the way, Stewart helped raise televisions collective IQ not just with his own razor-sharp satire of elected officials and media figures, but also by playing a direct role in boosting the careers of onetime Daily Show regulars such as Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Larry Wilmore, all of whom got their own impact-making shows.

Stewart regularly rejected suggestions that he wielded enormous influence, claiming he was just a comedian, but those assertions were never persuasive.

A decade ago, a survey by the Pew Research Center found that more than one-fifth of 18- to 29-year-olds got their presidential campaign news from The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live.

I can attest to that phenomenon firsthand. For the past dozen years, Ive taught at a local university, and in the first class of each semester I ask my students what their primary news sources are. Invariably, several of them reply: Jon Stewart.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, especially during the Iraq war, Stewart emerged as a one-man opposition party, far more vigorous than the Democrats in Congress. At the end of 2004, Entertainment Weekly bypassed the usual movie stars and rock singers to name him Entertainer of the Year. When CNN pulled the plug on its long-running political debate show Crossfire, a top CNN executive said that he agreed wholeheartedly with Stewarts scathing criticism of the show.

While he was a guest on Crossfire, Stewart had told the hosts that their partisan shoutfests were hurting America. It was just one of several memorable Stewart takedowns.

The extent of his influence was underscored when Dan Rather stepped down as anchor of the CBS Evening News and the head of CBS told television critics that he was contemplating a multianchor format that could include a role for Stewart.

For the better part of the last two decades, I have had the incredible honor and privilege of working with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless said in a statement Tuesday night. His comedic brilliance is second to none. Jon has been at the heart of Comedy Central, championing and nurturing the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera. Through his unique voice and vision, The Daily Show has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come.

Stewarts announcement of his upcoming departure comes just two months after Colbert wrapped up The Colbert Report. (Colbert will take over David Lettermans late-night show on CBS later this year, but he will abandon his persona as an arch-conservative blowhard.) They were a one-two punch for the ages. Airing back to back, Stewart and Colbert made us laugh and think about the news, and about the people who deliver it.

Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com.

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