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It’s funny because it’s true.

While this cliché has been so overused that it’s nearly lost its meaning, there’s no better way to describe a media evolution that is fundamentally changing the way that Americans get their news. Today, a comedic “fake news” program, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is rivaling the mainstays of television journalism in terms of reach, audience sophistication, and, above all, trust.

By April of last year, The Daily Show was already attracting more eyeballs than the USA Today and one-third as many as the CBS Nightly News. Back in April of 2007, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that The Daily Show’s audience was more informed than that of any other news source. In 2000 and 2004, the program won the prestigious Peabody Award. And when the incomparable Walter Cronkite passed away last summer, it was Jon Stewart that a Time Magazine poll found to be the most trusted newsman in America.

Just last week, Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post’s media reporter, alluded to the fact that The Daily Show may also be the most fair and balanced news reporting out there. In a column that juxtaposed the left-leaning Stewart’s recent rants against the Obama Administration with eight years of “relentless ridicule” of the George W. Bush, it’s clear that The Daily Show’s targets aren’t picked based on partisanship. The formula is much simpler. As Stewart himself said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2004, The Daily Show is “a reaction to an egregious violation by the news media.” In that same interview, Stewart described the perfect news program as one defined by a “pursuit of credibility.”

With audiences finding traditional news sources less credible with each passing poll, The Daily Show’s success is no mystery. While there’s no doubting the program’s comedic appeal, audiences are finding more truth in lampooned versions of the news than anywhere else. In the Howard Kurtz piece cited above, the Center for Media and Public Affairs’ Robert Lichter is quoted as saying, “[Stewart] has pulled off the trick of being taken seriously when he wants to be and taken frivolously when he wants to be.”

There’s an odd lesson here for business. If a significantly smaller percent of the public now believe traditional communicators than in the past, maybe a change in tone is in order. Maybe what’s needed is something less formal, less bland, and less institutional. As the old joke goes, who wants to live in an institution anyway?

The overt irreverence of a Jon Stewart may not be appropriate, but one look at the success of companies like Southwest Airlines in reaching their audiences amid the current malaise shows how much can be achieved by at least being a little looser and by allowing a greater diversity of online commentators to share space with the corporate bigwigs.

Certain tones build credibility. Jon Stewart found his. With rare exceptions, Corporate America is still searching.

Richard S. Levick, Esq. is President and CEO of Levick Strategic Communications, the nation's top crisis communications firm, and a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog. Connect with him @richardlevick.