With Walter Cronkite dead, an online poll conducted by TIME aimed to find out who is the most trusted newscaster in America.

The answer? The Daily Show‘s anchor Jon Stewart.

No foolin’.

Stewart received 44 percent of the 9400 votes cast. Coming in second with 29 percent was NBC’s Brian Williams, followed by ABC’s Charlie Gibson (29 percent) and CBS’ Katie Couric (7 percent).

According to TIME’s state-by-state breakdown Stewart won or came in second in every state … except Vermont.

Go figure.

In Vermont, Williams received 50 percent of the tally, Gibson 28 percent, Stewart 17 percent and Couric 6 percent.

Must be Vermonters are keeping their TVs tuned to WPTZ NewsChannel 5 so they can get to bed early, rather than stay up for the Daily Show’s 11 p.m. “newscast”.

Along with Vermont, Williams won Arizona, Deleware, Florida, Indiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina and Wyoming. He and Stewart tied in Kentucky and Alaska. Gibson won Tennessee and Montana, while Couric won just one state — Iowa.

This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2009.

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Shay Totten wrote "Fair Game," a weekly political column, from April 2008-December 2011.

6 replies on “Jon Stewart Most Trusted? Not in Vermont”

  1. For many of the reasons cited in your post – “Outing” Media Complicity – I’d place Stewart over the network nabobs. Cable guys seem to have less to lose and are willing to go for the guts of the issue – at least more so than Williams and Couric (Gibson seems like he could be a decent, honest person).

  2. I trust Jon Stewart more than any other “newscaster” myself. That said, relying on a Time internet poll as the basis of your story is absurd. Just check out the results of Time’s other recent “polls:” http://imgur.com/o7Uu9.png . Iowa is always the outlier. Sheesh!

  3. If the question were: “Do you watch Jon Stewart?” I’ll bet VT’s score would be extremely high. Maybe Vermonters were just trying to take the question seriously, and name an actual newscaster, rather than a political satirist.Here are a couple of items to make the whole thing highly suspicious: one of the earlier Time polls makes Vermont, OR, and LA the only states who do NOT believe wealthy Americans should be taxed to pay for health care reform…Does that sound like VT to you? Second item: why aren’t there any FOX so-called “newscasters” named? I’d bet anything there are several red states out there where a majority listen exclusively to FOX. (That’s what turns them into red states, right?)It’s all in how the questions are asked and the results tallied. IMHO, polls are garbage, but unfortunately most of the decisions that affect us the most are driven by polls. (I can’t wait to hear Jon Stewart’s reaction to “losing in Vermont” to his good friend Brian Williams….)

  4. “Along with Vermont, Williams won Arizona, Deleware, Florida, Indiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina and Wyoming.”I don’t have the data but I think all of the Williams won states are relatively old aka not Stewart’s targeted demo.

  6. I found the results of the overall poll rather amusing and entertaining, not necessarily proof positive that the nation trusts Jon Stewart more. Besides, online polls are always questionable – no matter how “trusted” the operation running it.And, Vermont’s results are based on the responses of 18 people. I should have cited that in the blog post, but it’s pretty apparent once you slide your cursor over the state.As for Iowa being the outlier in these polls, maybe we should rethink that presidential Iowa Straw Poll. Or, maybe TIME magazine polls …

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