Jon Stewart speaks at USO awards show
Jon Stewart speaks at USO awards showUS Defense Dept

Jewish-American comedian Jon Stewart is the most influential man of 2010, far ahead of President Barack Obama, according to a survey conducted by the AskMen online magazine, which attracted roughly 500,000 people to vote in the poll.

Second and third place were held by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, respectively. President Barack Obama had fallen in the poll, going from the top five in 2009 to 21st place this year.

Stewart hosts the popular talk show The Daily Show, which covers the daily news using humor and political satire. The show's creators call it “fake news,” however, studies have found that The Daily Show has approximately the same number of viewers as do news programs on major networks like Fox and PBS.

A 2006 survey found that the Daily Show gave as much coverage to news events surrounding the 2004 presidential election as did real news shows. Another survey found that more than 20 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 got most of their news from The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live.

Stewart will host Obama on his show this week. During the presidential race, his show featured appearances by Obama, now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Republican candidate John McCain. At the time, the British Independent referred to Stewart as "the most influential voice in American politics," while The New York Times suggested he was "the most trusted man in America."

He has been criticized by nationalist Jews for his coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which tends to accept the leftist media narrative that blames Israel for failed negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.