Satirical, serious news move ever closer together

I've written before about the genuine news reporting value of satirical news media such as the Onion, the Sunday Sport and the Daily Show, most lately in response to Pew's report showing that Colbert fans are the best-informed people in the United States. I was delighted, therefore, to see Terry Heaton had flagged up a debate on Poynter between Steve Outing and Bob Wyman on the genuine news value of satirical news reporting, and particularly taken with the conclusion - that "the essential problem for journalists in the age of Jon Stewart...is that the rules and traditions of 'professional' journalism don’t support the profession anymore". We already know that the Daily Show audience are the best informed news audience. Now we have prominent news commentators wondering why journalists can't get over just reporting the facts and offer the sort of critical interpretation that is meat and drink to Colbert et al.  The gap between news and news satire gets ever smaller, and it seems our understanding of current affairs is all the richer for it.