KYLE SMITH: How Jon Stewart turned lies into comedy and brainwashed a generation.

So Brian Williams goes out (for six months) humiliated and derided. Jon Stewart goes out (permanently, one hopes) the same day, but on a giant Comedy Homecoming King float, with a 21-gun salute from the media, his path strewn with roses and teardrops.

Why?

Brian Williams lied about his personal exploits a few times. Jon Stewart was unabashedly and habitually dishonest.

Though Stewart has often claimed he does a “fake news show,” “The Daily Show” isn’t that. It’s a real news show punctuated with puns, jokes, asides and the occasional moment of staged sanctimony.

It contains real, unstaged sound bites about the days’ events and interviews about important policy matters.

Stewart is a journalist: an irresponsible and unprofessional one.

He is especially beloved by others in the journo game. . . .

The hacks have a special love for Stewart because he’s their id. They don’t just think he’s funny, they thrill to his every sarcastic quip. They wish they could get away with being so one-sided, snarky and dismissive.

They wish they could skip over all the boring phone calls and the due diligence and the pretend fairness and just blurt out to their ideological enemies in Stewart style, “What the f–k is wrong with you?”

It’s worth noting that “Family Guy” reruns routinely outdrew Stewart. His big impact wasn’t on his mass audience, which wasn’t that massive, but on the journalistic and pundit classes.

Plus, speaking of comic relief: Kathleen Parker: Unlike Liberal Comedians ‘Conservatives Put Politics First.’