WaPo's Mouthpiece Theater, which was designed as a response to Stewart and Colbert, was the product of a misunderstanding. Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza strained to be subjective because they spend most of their life pretending to be objective. Stewart and Colbert don't try to be objective, it's impossible. They try to be honest.

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Stewart on CNN in 2000

CALLER: I was wondering, is it hard to make political jokes and not be on, like, either side?
KING: You can't be for either side.
STEWART: No, that's not true I mean I think you -- most people can't hide their political.
KING: I think you're a Democrat, Jon.
STEWART: I think that's probably correct. I think I would say I'm more of a socialist or an independent but, yes, I mean, no one would ever I think watching our show think that, boy, that guy is just leaning so far right.
KING: But you would knock the Democrats...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: Oh, sure.

There's also some discussion of judgement and timing, of reading and misreading, of making mistakes before an audience. Performance is empiricism: judging action and reaction, judging the connect and disconnect between ideas and behavior.

Many of the people who ridiculed Milbank and Cillizza have no better understanding of what went wrong than they do.