I used to watch The Daily Show pretty religiously. But, sometime over the last two years, I lost touch with America’s favorite fake news show, and I’m not exactly sure why.

Two weeks ago, however, at the beginning of the Democratic National Convention, I rediscovered it. And I’m going to make sure I never lose touch with it again.

After watching coverage of both conventions on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News, and then enjoying the Daily Show coverage afterward, I realized something: The Daily Show really isn’t fake news anymore. It’s real news — quite possibly as “real” as it gets.

I enjoy politics, and I enjoyed following both conventions. I like hearing what the pundits have to say after a speech, and I like seeing the reactions on the editorial pages the next day. But none of the mainstream media outlets produced the kind of commentary that Jon Stewart and his crew put together over the last two weeks.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m an Obama-Biden supporter. However, I found the fake Obama convention video “Barack Obama: He Completes Us” (in which Obama’s life story was put to The Lion King’s Circle of Life, and in which Obama’s head was transposed onto young Simba’s body) to be quite possibly the most hilarious thing I had ever seen. And frankly, no matter what McCain supporters might say, Jon Stewart has taken on the periodic ridiculousness of the Obama campaign (the fake presidential seal and the over-the-top backdrop to his speech at the convention, to name a few) just as much as he has the McCain campaign. Maybe more.

Anyway, the reason The Daily Show’s coverage was so terrific was because of the social commentary that it provided on both sides of the aisle. They went into the audience, and they spoke to people. They routinely exposed delegates who didn’t understand the issues. And they gave a really interesting behind the scenes look at who most of these delegates actually are.

Especially during the Republican convention, The Daily Show was like the Borat movie that kept on giving. The delegates (who obviously had no idea what show they were being interviewed for) looked flabbergasted when Daily Show reporters asked them why it was acceptable for Bristol Palin to make a “decision” to keep her child, but not acceptable for all women to make the same “choice.” Newt Gingrich looked equally confused when Stewart confronted him with the same question.

They also dug into old video of political advisors and pundits, continuously catching them in contradictions and outright lies. Earlier this year Karl Rove told FOX News that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine wasn’t qualified for the Vice Presidency because he had only been Virginia’s governor for three years, and prior to that was only the lieutenant governor, and prior to that was only the mayor of Richmond, which, according to Rove, is “the 105th biggest city in the country.” Last week, Rove told FOX News that Sarah Palin was qualified to be vice president because she had been the mayor of “I think, the second largest city in Alaska.”

Another example: earlier this year, Bill O’Reilly slammed Jamie Lynn Spears’ parents when it was reported that she was pregnant. When Bristol Palin’s pregnancy was reported last week, O’Reilly lauded her decision to keep the baby, praising Sarah Palin and her family.

I’ve never understood why, but you don’t see this kind of research and tenacity on the cable news channels. I suppose it’s because they prefer to cater to the talking heads, but, frankly, aren’t these kinds of contradictions important?

I’m a firm believer that politicians should be able to change their minds (so I won’t attack John McCain for saying that he supported Roe v. Wade in 2000, while staunchly opposing it now), but I do think it’s worthwhile to know when politicians and political advisors change their rhetoric to fit the particular situation that they find themselves in. So, I do think it’s important that Hillary Clinton said that McCain was more qualified than Barack Obama during her primary campaign, while she staunchly supports Obama now.

It’s too often that politicians are let off the hook by the mainstream media for these things. And it’s too often that the cable news channels forget to step away from the talking heads and speak to the actual people on the convention floors. And it’s for that reason that The Daily Show’s role is so important — it fills in the cracks where cable news is so dreadfully inadequate. While CNN has been drooling over Obama’s speeches for over a year now, Jon Stewart has consistently ridiculed him for saying essentially nothing so much of the time.

It’s sad that we have a four-day-a-week half-hour-long show on Comedy Central doing the work that we expect news channels to do during this important time in the country’s political life.

But, I suppose I should just be happy that the work is getting done at all.

Eric Finkelstein ’06 is a former Sun managing editor and a third year student in the Law School. He can be reached at efinkelstein@cornellsun.com. Saturdays Excepted appears alternate Mondays.