News Digest

Cult satirist Jon Stewart retires from ‘Daily Show’

Not even Barack Obama wants to see him go. But after informing and entertaining American viewers for 16 years, Jon Stewart will present his final episode of “The Daily Show” on Thursday. The content and guests on the last program on Comedy Central are a closely guarded secret, but it is scheduled to last an hour, twice as long as normal. The native New Yorker, 52, funny, pitiless and firmly left of center, is a unique voice in American broadcasting, and one that intersects politics, journalism and entertainment.

America will miss Jon Stewart. But it’s fair to say we miss him already, because his America is gone. The political climate — angrier, more bitter, more violently divided — is radically different from the one he signed up to make fun of.

Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone.

“The Daily Show” rakes over the day’s news, political headlines and oddities to poke fun and make serious points, often mocking the sensationalist coverage of television networks, such as Fox News and CNN. Guests are normally submitted to a barrage of questions. Some see Stewart as a rock in times of crisis. He was there after the September 11, 2001 attacks, incapable of holding back tears and asking viewers: “Are you OK?” In June this year, he condemned the “terrorist attack” on a black church in Charleston and denounced the continued flying of the Confederate flag. Stewart said he retired because he wanted a more flexible schedule, citing a desire to spend more time with his children.