As a quick follow up to my previous post about the evolution of credibility in news media, I think today's release from Time Magazine is fitting. Many news sources are buzzing about a recent Time poll of 9,400 Time.com visitors asking, in the wake of Walter Cronkite's death, "who is America's most trusted broadcaster?" The top four answers in the survey were Katie Couric (CBS), Charlie Gibson (ABC), Brian Williams (NBC) and Jon Stewart (Comedy Central).

So, what was the most prevalent answer? With 44% of the vote (a full 15% ahead of the second place anchor), Comedy Central's Jon Stewart was the favorite amongst Time.com visitors. A closer look at the state-by-state breakdown shows that there is no chasm between red states and blue states in the results. Whether you live in Alabama, Texas or California, your neighbors trust Jon Stewart the most. They prefer satire and they are skeptical about information from any source that is presented as fact. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I find this trend to be very reflective of my generation (and we're the sons and daughters of the people who read Time Magazine).

I should mention that Brian Williams' second place finish in the poll put him a solid 10% ahead of Charlie Gibson (with Katie Couric trailing in fourth place with less than one-sixth of Jon Stewart's votes), and Williams is a clear favorite in states like Indiana, Vermont, North Dakota and Wyoming (a couple of which are Republican strongholds).

Overall, the notion of drawing perspectives from a variety of sources that I mentioned in my post earlier this week tends to be true for Stewart's Daily Show. During the first 15 minutes of the program, you'll find clips and commentary from many news agencies (albeit some of them brazenly fictional) mixed in with a blend of fact and hyperbole. Sure, there are some people who don't understand satire (a portion of which actually believe that Stephen Colbert is a staunch conservative), but for those Americans with a funny bone, maybe Jon Stewart is the Walter Cronkite of the future that I mistakenly overlooked.