President Obama isn't the only Democrat to trust Jon Stewart

July 29, 2015, 6:01 PM GMT+0

Democrats widely trust the Daily Show to provide the news, and most liberals think they are funnier than conservatives

In nine days the Daily Show will feature Jon Stewart as its host for the very last time. Though Jon Stewart shies away from explicit partisan affiliations the tone of his show is widely perceived as liberal and his connections to the liberal establishment appear to be greater than first thought, as new emerged that he has privately met with President Obama twice in recent years, with one communications expert with links to the White House saying that he was regarded as the 'Walter Cronkite' for millenials and someone who could be trusted to give an honest take on the news.

YouGov's latest research shows that people who have seen the Daily Show tend to see it as a reliable source of news. Half (49%) of the 46% of Americans who have seen the show think it is a reliable news source, while 33% think that it isn't. There is a strong partisan divide on this issue, however, as most Democrats (70%) who have watched the show think it is reliable whilst most Republicans (62%) who have also seen it think that it is not a reliable source of news. Independents are divided 38% to 35%. Even including the 39% of Democrats who have not seen the Daily Show 45% of Democrats view the show as a reliable news source

Democrats (54%) are, however, quite a bit more likely than either independents (44%) or Republicans (37%) to have ever seen the Daily Show. Of the 48% of Americans who have never seen the show, 58% aren't sure whether it is reliable and 35% say that it is not reliable.

Certain media forms often seem to be dominated by entertainers of certain ideologies - while the world of political satire is often dominated by liberals, conservatives dominate talk radio.

When Americans are asked whether liberals or conservatives tend to be funnier, few say that conservatives are funnier than liberals. A third of the country isn't sure who tends to be funnier, while 30% believe that liberals tend to be funnier and 28% think that they're both equally funny. Only 9% of Americans, including only 17% of conservatives themselves, think that conservatives tend to be funnier. Liberals, however, are widely convinced (62%) that they are funnier than conservatives.

Full poll results can be found here and topline results and margin of error here.

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