"Jon Stewart: The Most Trusted Name In Fake News"

NPR recently aired an interview with Jon Stewart, which I found interesting for a few reasons:

• On a positive note: he spoke of the need to distinguish between opponents and enemies. If someone like Palin got elected as president or vice-president "We'll be fine. You know, we had a civil war. Just - we're not that fragile, and I think we always have to remember that people can be opponents, but not enemies."
• On an annoyed note: he talked of the "hypocrisy videos" in which they show a person saying one thing and then a video of the same person either saying the opposite thing, or presenting the same case as a new direction. Personally I despise these videos - to quote a guest writer on the Freakonomics blog, who authored a book entitled Being Wrong, "wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change." To make it more difficult for people to change their minds without being considered a hypocrite seems to weaken the ability to develop effective policies.
• On a Glenn Beck note: he stated that "it's very difficult to argue with his [Beck's] facts. It's the conclusions." My question: should you treat Stewart calling Beck a "dumb-ass" (which seems to be the typical insult on the episodes of the Daily Show that I've seen), any different than Beck extracting "liar" as a substring of "libertarian"?
• On a slightly amusing note: the interview seemed very much an overawed Stewart groupie. A quote from the transcript: "And please let me lead the standing ovation for you and the work that you do."

Personally I like The Colbert Report but find Stewart and his show a little annoying. Stewart seems often more a pundit than a comedian to me, whereas Colbert is basically stuck in character.