Liberals Love the Daily Show, Moderates Watch Colbert

Surprisingly more liberals watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and more moderates watch the Colbert Report.

A recent PEW survey shows the breakdown...

	Conservative	Moderate	Liberal
Daily Show	22	24	45
Colbert Report	14	45	36

From Open Left...

It's interesting that both liberals and conservatives drop off from Stewart to Colbert. I sometimes wonder how well conservatives get what Colbert is doing, and I think this is some evidence they do, and really don't like it. The whole Colbert persona is an ongoing satire on common right wing personality traits, assumptions and worldview.

This is why I think Colbert is more liberal. His whole show is actually a non-stop assault on conservative values. Additionally, Stewart has distaste for the extremes and the partisans, engages in equivalence fallacies and rhetorically plays up the center as if he is just mocking absurdity with no specific ideological mission. It's as if it just so happens that there's more absurdity to mock on the right, but of course this is no coincidence. I think Colbert gets this pattern better than Stewart.

To that end, it may be a good thing that Colbert attracts more moderates. His message is not being heard just by the choir.

Not really sure why liberals drop off from Stewart to Colbert. Maybe we don't tend to like Colbert's shtick, even knowing it is a satire it can be a bit much, particularly when he won't let his guests speak without interrupting (my only beef with Colbert, lighten up on the act with the guests who can't keep up).