Yep, I think Jon Stewart basically invented this approach. I believe that he in fact popularized the phrase "fake news" first, to use it to refer to himself, t

Yep, I think Jon Stewart basically invented this approach. I believe that he in fact popularized the phrase "fake news" first, to use it to refer to himself, to do exactly this, defend himself when called out, saying "hey i'm just fake news, why are you trying to hold me to real news standards?" I think it totally paved the way for a lot of misinformation (that now tends to, but not always, be right-wing oriented), and I think it's a mess. Here's someone else making the same connection in 2016: https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trump_jon_stewart_stephen_colbert.php https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trump_jon_stewart_stephen... It's not just Stewart, it's part of the general merging of "entertainment", "news", and "politics". But I think Stewart is a fore-runner in serving roles that are actually both "politics" (advocacy of positions) and "news" (informing as to what's going on) for their audience, while disclaiming accountability for performing those roles responsibly because "it's just entertainment" -- an approach that has been adopted by Rogan, among others. [In case you think I am making this critique from the "right" I am most definitely not]