Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Jon Stewart.

Stewart, whose "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" returned to the air yesterday, has been supportive of the striking writers. Nonetheless, he apparently is annoyed with the Writers Guild of America. During his show, Stewart mentioned that his production company tried to reach the same deal with the guild that David Letterman's Worldwide Pants received and was turned down.

Apparently, the guild wants to present a united front against the media conglomerates, including Comedy Central's corporate parent Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), Walt Disney Co.(NYSE: DIS)'s ABC, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)'s NBC and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). That's why Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel are being forced to appear as guests on each other's programs and why the Golden Globes were canceled by NBC.

Call him the Sanjaya of politics. Stephen Colbert's sarcastic quest for the presidency has established a legion of followers on Facebook. A Facebook group, 1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T Colbert [login required], grew to a million in just over a week according to The New York Times.

Similar groups for legitimate candidates have taken months to reach the elusive milestone, and some haven't reached it.

When the Founding Fathers installed the electoral college, they did so based on the fear that the masses might make a terrible mistake and elect a bad leader. But could they ever have envisioned the possibility of a campaign that started as a joke gaining steam?

Maybe American Idol needs an electoral college too.

Fans of Comedy Central's left-leaning The Daily Show (this means you, Mom and Dad), rejoice! Jon Stewart will remain the show's host through at least 2010. The affable anchor has signed a two-year contract extension that keeps him in the employ of the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) network through 2010. His previous contract was set to expire at the end of next year.

In other news, fans of Stewart can review his Daily career, beginning in 1999, as Comedy Central has launched a standalone website for the program, featuring video clips dating back to January 11, 1999, when Stewart first took over the reins. Seriously, does anyone remember when rigid pretty-boy Craig Kilborn hosted the thing? It seems now as though The Daily Show and Stewart were simultaneously formed. The website also features episode synopses, games, and additional features.

Stewart will also continue to serve in a executive producing and writing role.

In addition to South Park, The Daily Show is the cable network's longest-running original series that is still on the air. It spawned a very successful spin-off -- The Colbert Report -- which itself may have spawned our next Commander in Chief. Referring to Colbert's (fake?) declaration of his candidacy earlier this week, Stewart was quoted by The Associated Press as joking: "I look forward to using this [contract] extension to having great fun at President Colbert's expense."

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox News Channel (FNC) has admitted defeat in the field of political satire. That's because, according to MediaBistro, it will shut down its short-lived attempt to satirize Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA) Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The TV news satire show which airs Sunday nights, first aired February 18 with more than 1.4 million viewers. But it has fallen back to an average of 258,000 viewers in its last 10 airings -- while still leading its time slot in every airing except one. FNC will air the final show September 16.

What happened? I don't really know why FNC is canceling the show if it was so successful. And since I've only seen a few clips, I can say that I found those clips to be unfunny. I think Stewart and Colbert satirize what passes for "fair and balanced" reporting on FNC.

And I think it would be pretty hard for any media outlet to do a good job of both creating the object of satire and to make viewers laugh at a satire of the satire of that object.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in News Corp. or Viacom.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and watch out for more Battle of the Brands posts.

The battle between CNN and Fox News isn't a question of liberals and conservatives. That debate was settled long ago and the conservatives won.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) makes a ton of money from Fox News, which continues to dominate. Its ratings have rebounded after slipping last year. CNN parent Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) launched Headline Prime in 2005 as a Fox without Bill O'Reilly, complete with rabid right-wing talk show hosts like Glenn Beck.

One night for fun, I decided to compare O'Reilly and Beck. Boy was I lucky. I picked a night to DVR their shows when both hosts were at the the top of their games.

On his program, Beck railed against all sorts of people bent on destroying the America, including filmmaker Michael Moore, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, and pop star Elton John.

Elton John? Rocket Man? I was shocked too.

Apparently, Sir Elton is the "high priest of hypocrisy," according to Beck. The singer had a 60th birthday party at St. John the Divine, a big church in New York. Seems John, who has little use for religion, made some changes to the church building for the concert, including removing the pews. To make matters worse, John showed a background of a burning church at his show the next day at Madison Square Garden. Oh yeah, that was on a Sunday.

All of this was too much for the talk show host to take.

"If he wants to drop a few million to desecrate your church than who am I to judge, right? Wrong!" he said of the pop star.

Last month, I mentioned how Ben & Jerry's -- a unit of Unilever ADR (NYSE:UL), was honoring Stephen Colbert with his very own ice cream flavor. The whimsical ice cream makers have now launched another celebrity-linked flavor - Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler, which swirls peach ice cream with cinnamon sugar shortbread pieces.

Unfortunately for fans of the friendly face behind Farm Aid, the first taste will be somewhat delayed. The company is recalling roughly 250,000 pints of the new flavor because containers packed on January 23-24 and February 8-9 failed to list wheat as an ingredient, making it dangerous for those with a wheat allergy.

Meanwhile, an envious Mr. Colbert may have a case of the schadenfreude. Reacting to news that Nelson also has a new flavor named in his honor, the Colbert Report host asked "What is it made out of? Shredded tax forms and hash?" Nelson is scheduled to appear on Colbert's program tonight.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Question for people who post large chunks of their favorite TV shows on YouTube: do you think you're going to get sued?

Now that Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) is suing Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) for $1 billion that's not a far-fetched scenario. Google has tried and failed to cut deals with other big content providers. Unless Google pulls off a miracle, it's probably a matter of time before another big media company joins Viacom and another one after that

Although people hated the music industry's campaign against Napster and other file-sharing services, the message got out that you should pay for music that you download. Why is video sharing any different? Billionaire blogger Mark Cuban, a critic of YouTube, called the site "a haven for pirates." It's hard to disagree.

It took me 20, maybe 30 seconds surfing YouTube clips from "Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report." "American Idol", "Lost" and" Family Guy" that would probably give lawyers from big media a fit. Reuters came to the same conclusion. YouTube can be that oblivious.

Many of the YouTube clips I found were multi-minute chunks of hit shows. They were the funny moments, the highlights that fans enjoy. Some were as long as 15 minutes. Media companies would be insane to give that away for free. How is that legal?

Legal experts are divided over whether Viacom has a case against Google, according to The New York Times. The safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may offer Google protection against people posting videos they don't own. As Melly Alazarki pointed out yesterday, the DMCA was enacted during the Internet's Stone Age. Copyright holders have to flag objectionable content and ask sites like YouTube to take it down.

By the time that happens, the illegal content has spread to every corner of the Web. Remember it was still wrong to post other people's conent in the first place.

Some sort of balance has to be struck that doesn't stifle creativity and respects the rights of copyright holders. But if YouTube is to survive, it will have to figure a way to stop pirated content and punish those who post it.

So party on, YouTubers. The fun may not last.

Right this moment (I imagine), a flavor expert somewhere deep in the Vermont offices of Unilever ADR (NYSE:UL) unit Ben & Jerry's is asking a very, very difficult question: What does a celebrity taste like? And which celebrities do we even want to associate with vanilla ice cream, raspberry swirl and brownie bits (that would be Dave Matthews) or fudge-covered waffle cone pieces, ripples of caramel, and the patriotic vanilla ice cream (yep, Stephen Colbert).

BloggingStocks may be the only organization brave enough to wonder, should Jerry Garcia really taste like cherries and fudge? and which celebrities are the ice-creamiest? Does anyone buy the ice cream just because they like the celebrity, and, isn't that a bit weird? Do you want to taste the people you most admire? And is this all a liberal hippy conspiracy to keep ice cream Democratic?

Let's begin by exploring where this whole celebrity-ice cream flavor thing started: Jerry Garcia. He and his band the Grateful Dead, well, let's just say that may have been where the term "groupie" started. People who love the Grateful Dead, they love the Grateful Dead. Oh, my, lord. So for the liberal (and then independent) company to name a flavor after the hippiest of all hippy icons, well, totally made sense. Are you familiar with the history of celebrities and ice cream? If you do, you know that Cherry Garcia was the first ice cream ever named for a rock star, and appeared in 1987 at the suggestion of two deadheads from Portland, Maine.

Because I'm very serious about my work, I sent my husband out in the dark of night for a quart of Cherry Garcia, the flavor that started it all, and the number one flavor on Ben & Jerry's flavor roster. Cherries and "fudge flakes" (which seem very much like "pieces of chocolate" to me, but I'm not the one describing the flavors on the package) are mixed into cherry ice cream. Does Cherry Garcia deserve its place on the top of the roster? And is it because of the taste of the ice cream, or the connection with the band?

Kudos to a reader named Kathleen for pointing out that we missed "vetted" in our list of the most overused buzzwords. I also agree with her that the mashing together of celebrity couple names like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Brangelina) has got to stop.

We probably should have vetted our buzzword list with Kathleen (who didn't give her last name) before publishing it. Vetted, like all buzzwords, is a fancy-sounding word that describes something simple. It started out meaning reviewing or checking out for accuracy as in the qualifications of a nominee for a cabinet position on an article for scientific journal. Now, it's being bandied about to describe every type of review. For example, officials in Louisville are vetting a dog ordinance. When words like vetting get overused, their original meaning becomes diluted.

Finally, please dear God, when will the name mashing madness end? I mean first there was Bennifer, now Brangelina. I think Stephen Colbert created the ultimate celebrity couple when he merged William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman into Filliam H. Muffman. With the 2008 presidential election gearing up, I'm afraid the name mashing will only get worse. I'll get the process started with Hillbama (Hillary Cilnton and Barack Obama).

--Jonathan Berr is the editor of http://www.desperateinvestors.com

Richard Parsons is one optimistic dude. The Time Warner CEO gave a positively rosy-hued speech at last week's shareholders meeting in Atlanta, with the reassuring statement that "our company is clearly undervalued."

Among other plans, Parsons believes he can rejuvenate AOL by increasing revenue from online advertising (some of our BloggingStocks readers, meanwhile, seem to think that  AOL's "certified" email program is also part of the plan to jump-start AOL).

And while he's made some bold moves -- slashing some 2,400 jobs, for instance -- the stock has remained relatively static.

Is it just me, or is Parsons' cheerfulness a bit like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic? Or is it rather -- in Stephen Colbert's famous phrase -- like shuffling chairs on the Hindenberg?