Well, I wasn't comparing the Daily Show audience with any other TV oulets; I was just saying that audience is low information. And I stand by that, because I think that
everyone who gets their news primarily from TV is low information. The TV format - 30 or 6o minute shows divided into several short segments that do not go into heavy detail (exceptions are rare, like Charley Rose) - is inherently superficial.
Now, I don't know about the survey you are discussing, but I do know the biennial
Pew Media Consumption Survey. Their "political knowledge" measure is based on just 4 questions - the most recent (2012) survey questions were: which party controls the House, what is the current unemployment rate, what nation does Angela Merkel lead, and which 2012 presidential candidate wants to raise taxes on the rich. Stewart's audience did pretty good relative to other TV outlets, but nonetheless fewer than 1/3 of them got all four of these exceedingly easy questions correct.
I'm not saying his audience is stupid - I personally know several bright and highly educated people who get their "news" from the Daily Show. But they cannot hold a deep conversation on the issues because their knowledge is superficial (at least partially because, when you get right down to it, so is their interest - they just want to be told comforting "truths"). I imagine the same is true for people who only watch O'Reilly or listen to Limbaugh, but I don't have any of them in my personal circle.
