Jon Stewart Accepting the 2015 Institutional Peabody Award for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”

From That Was The Week That Was to Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update and HBO’s Not Necessarily the News, television has long found humor and absurdity in news and current events. But Comedy Central’s The Daily Show – once comedian Jon Stewart became its host/anchor in 1999 – was a different animal, an evolutionary leap. In an era of politicized, echo-chamber news channels and traditional-journalism timidity, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart didn’t simply mine the day’s news for jokes. It spoke truth to power and wither-ing sarcasm to hypocrisy, taking on the news media as well as the news makers, and thus became a trusted source of news for citizens united in their disappointment and disgust with politics and cable news.

Read full winner’s citation here: http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart

Jon Stewart enthusiastically hosted the Peabody awards ceremony in New York in 2006. His Comedy Central series The Daily Show won the award in 2000 and 2004 for its satirical coverage of Presidential elections.

What happens at the Peabody Awards is that the creativity and social significance of the year’s recipients slowly adds up and reaches a cumulative critical mass that can be humbling, whether you’re a reporter at a radio station in Fargo or the highly paid creator of a hit network show.

What happens is that recipients, emcees and audience members alike become palpably aware that a Peabody Award, the oldest in electronic media, is indeed the hardest to win. They are reminded that the awards go to not just technically excellent work, but work that addresses issues and ideas in a thoughtful manner, that challenges the mind or that breaks new ground.

Jon Stewart at the 65th Peabody Awards Ceremony.