Jon Stewart Named Most Influential Man of 2010

Jon Stewart Named Most Influential Man of 2010

He's obviously not the most influential man. Previous polls using scientific sampling techniques have shown that a very high percentage of people don't even know who he is (34% never heard of him, and another 10% don't know enough about him to have an opinion), although those who do know of him tend to view him quite positively. The "Most Influential" honor was determined by an online poll. Jon's results are always going to be disproportionately positive in online polling because the internet meshes quite well with his core demographic, and because internet voters will express their preferences enthusiastically and probably often. (And, of course, self-selecting poll samples do not accurately reflect the public at large. Indeed, they often tend to represent society's passionate fringes.)

To be honest, Jon is probably not as influential as Bill O'Reilly. The George Washington University Poll called "Battle Ground 2010" showed that O'Reilly has the same positive/negative ratio as Jon, and far more people know who he is. (81% know enough about O'Reilly to have an opinion, versus only 56% for Stewart).

Depending on your personal politics, you could argue that Jon's influence, while it affects fewer people, is more positive than O'Reilly's, but even granting that, it would be hard to argue that Jon is more influential than Steve Jobs or Barack Obama or even Ahmadinejad. In fact, I think you could make a very good case that Rush Limbaugh is more influential than Stewart, maybe much more. Remember that the concept of "influence" is neither inherently positive nor negative. Hitler and Stalin were two of the most influential people that ever lived, but that was certainly not a good thing.

However, I do like and admire what Jon does. He's generally fair-minded and he's hilarious. Maybe "influence" isn't exactly the right word to describe his contribution to society, but I'd rather see him get the glory than any of the others I mentioned, so I'm cool with it.