Jon Stewart has been named the most trusted man in news and I’m a little depressed over this.

As a fan of The Daily Show and its faux-O’Reilly offspring The Colbert Report, I should be cheering Stewart and his ability to come across as a voice of reason amidst his barely disguised comedic outrage. Stewart and his talented pool of writers and performers have served the belly laughs like a teetering flapjack breakfast, jokes and zingers piled high, one atop the other. But as I’ve laughed away, I’ve come to a realization.

There is no right to information.

The choices on television are maddening: either the ranting of a badly informed foaming-at-the-mouth pundit with more opinion than common sense, or the chirpy patter of today’s Barbie-and-Ken newscasters. Network to network, it’s the same demented coin toss. They spill out, thanks to media consolidation, onto radio and print. The reasonable ones are rare and when you find one, you latch on to them like a lifeboat.

The waters have been successfully muddied. President Obama’s citizenship keeps getting questioned despite a thorough debunking. The public option for medical insurance, between insurance lobbyists and sympathetic lawmakers, is getting mugged in a DC alleyway. And the Wall Street bailout recipients simply gave themselves huge bonuses once the taxpayers rescued their foundering businesses. Despite the skullduggery, a good chunk of the population has still been convinced to slit their own throats.

This brings us back to Stewart and the amazing level of trust he inspires. The laughter is a relief for sure, but perhaps even better is someone simply saying:

This is happening now.