Jon Stewart...news genre?

I'm sure most, if not all, of you have watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And I'll even go so far as to say that I'm sure most, again if not all, of you have laughed over its often hilarious content.

And I'll even go so far as to say that most of you would catagorize this as a "comedy." I certainly do. After all, it doesn't present real news. We all know it. So why does a current study by the University of Indiana claim that The Daily Show can be dropped into the genre known as "news?"

"It is clearly a humor show, first and foremost. But there is some substance on
there, and in some cases, like John Edwards announcing his candidacy, the news
is made on the show. You have real newsmakers coming on, and yes, sometimes the banter and questions get a little silly, but there is also substantive dialogue
going on … It's a legitimate source of news." - Julia R. Fox, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University

Can the comedy genre and the news genre effectively and accurately be combined? I have my doubts but I'll let you decide.