After The Daily Show won a Peabody award for its coverage of the 2000 Presidential election, there was a lot of "Man Bites Dog"-style reaction from the mainstream press. This year, the novelty factor is gone, replaced by propagandic moralizing about how terrible the state of our discourse must be that a comedy show ranks so highly in it. Ted Koppel took Jon Stewart to task on Nightline for making light of serious stuff, only to have Stewart return fire, accusing the mainstream press of, at best, a lack of due diligence in its reporting; Koppel ended the interview at that point.

But Stewart, for his part, fails to live up to his responsibility at times, too. The show does its best work when standing in for reporters unwilling to report facts that are inconsistent with party talking points; it's at its worst in the live interviews, when Stewart is most likely to roll over and let his guest issue those same talking points without confrontation. Stewart is clearly not a Bush supporter, but also seems to be disenchanted with, at least, the leadership of the Democratic Party. I'm sure many of us can understand this, but we're not in Stewart's unique position. And so it is that Zephyr Teachout (late of the Dean campaign) and friends have launched Dear Jon Stewart, a petition and letter-writing site that aims to get Stewart to formally endorse John Kerry for President. I have no idea if this can really work, but I feel confident that it will eventually get to Stewart's eyes, which is all you can hope for. I urge you to sign it, because this endorsement is probably more important than any other press endorsement this year, and because ultimately, it'll only take ten seconds out of your day. Go.