Jon Stewart explains it all for you

You know political coverage has traipsed through the looking glass when Jon Stewart hosts a breakfast in Denver while the Democratic National Convention is firing up and draws a number of top political reporters and columnists, and slams CNN and its cable-news brethren as "gerbil wheels," and CNN reports on it. And all of those commenting on the story at the CNN.com site agree with Stewart.

Like Bob from Indianapolis: "Is it any wonder that thinking people get their news form Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, two comedians whose journalistic insights show how shallow and 2-Dimensional REAL NEWS has become. The Fourth Estate is largely responsible for allowing the criminals in the White House to operate without oversight for eight years while these tools followed Paris and Britney around like the second coming...."

And that Fox News actually feels the need to respond to Stewart's slams against them:

"Obama could cure cancer and [Fox News would] figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster," Stewart said. To which a Fox News spokesman replied, "Being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon, as evidenced by the crash-and-burn ratings of this year's Oscars telecast." This bears repeating: Fox News had to attack a comic making a joke about them. That sort of speaks volumes as to the influence Stewart wields these days. Well, that, and the fact that political pundits went to hear what Jon Stewart had to say about the state of punditry today.

It's not like Stewart saved all his vitriol for Fox: He called cable-news in general a "slow-witted beast," adding, "They drive the coverage, they drive the themes. It's as though we are in 'Of Mice and Men' and we say, 'Hey, Lenny, why don't you be the leader."

Stewart slagged (as we have, here) late-night comics who rely on the tired "McCain is old" jokes, and said of the Republican, who has appeared on "The Daily Show" more times than any other guest, "He knows we're there to introduce him to 20-year-olds smoking out of apple bongs."

(Fighting for truth, justice and the American way. Of ragging on stupid stuff.)