"I mean, 300 camera crews outside a courthouse to see what Kobe Bryant is wearing, while false information used to send our country to war goes unchecked? What the fuck happened?" was Jon Stewart's take on the media during Kobe Bryant's trial.

Do you watch Bill O'Reilly to keep up with the world or do you check your local listings for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart? Odds are if you want the actual news you're getting it from a comedian.

It's no secret that most college students don't keep up with the news. They are either too tired to watch the news or they don't care, and the few times you do tune in you are instantly assaulted with topics that don't matter and usually are of no concern to you. It is also brought to you by people who are old enough to value tax breaks over birth control and marriage rights.

With the upcoming elections the media should be keeping you up to date on topics that are on (or at least concern) the ballot. For instance, the candidates, stem cell information, the transportation bill, and new voting procedures that you should know about. However, the hot topic is Michael J. Fox and whether or not he was exaggerating his illness during his stem cell research ads.

Barring that Fox is running for an office or that the degree of his illness will be on the ballots, he and how often he takes his medicine should not be getting this much media attention during the elections. The press needs to reprioritize and reevaluate the actual relevance of a story before deeming it newsworthy. That's where comedians like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart come in.

If you want to hear the Republican views on the presidency turn on Fox News, but if you want to see what the president said or did go to Comedy Central, whose nightly lineup has stopped being strictly entertainment and become the way to educate an entire generation. The comedians stopped distorting the news to make you laugh and started giving you the news while trying not to laugh themselves. They tell you what the people in Washington are up to and then show the footage as the punch line. College students seem to appreciate shows that keep them abreast of the government and that's where a lot of them are getting their information.

This unique notion of reporting the facts with a "Yes, these are the leaders of the free world and guess who voted for them" attitude, is the way a lot of Americans get their news. It is also probably the only reason most of the under thirty-five demographic knows the names of any of the White House staff. Yes, they take a very liberal approach, but they are supposed to be comedians not news anchors. It is not supposed to be their responsibility to report the news. "You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls." Jon Stewart pointed out to Tucker Carlson after being attacked on Crossfire last year because his show doesn't take politics seriously enough.

Yes, people are starting to look to comedians for information. However, that doesn't mean they should stop doing their jobs and start doing the media's. It means that the media should start doing their job. Instead of Fox giving you just the right wing point of view they should give both sides. Instead of debating the depth of Michael J. Fox's illness (or debating if the rumors were valid or uncalled for) they should be informing you about the candidate, Claire McCaskill, that Fox was asking you to vote for.

Media isn't about educating you, the masses, anymore. Instead of informing you about what's going on in Washington they are stressing "splinter issues" that are not important. Comedy Central should not be the place to go to stay informed. It's a sad world when the guy from Strangers with Candy is informing you about politics, while real news anchors are discussing Britney Spears' new baby. Comedians are chasing facts and reporters are chasing tabloids. Does it get any more ironic?

Tell us what you think. Write Spectrum at editor@mcckc.edu.