Modern day IF Stone?

Check out this article -- with video -- about a producer on Jon Stewart's Comedy Central show whose stock in trade is comparing what officials and pundits are saying now with what they have said in the past.

The Post has dubbed this investigative humor because it involves digging up stuff out of the past and because it's frequently funny to see the twists and hypocritical turns officials take.

Stewart uses all this to excellent comedic effect but it's not an insignificant past time. Legendary investigative reporter IF Stone was a rigorous watchdog of government through much the same technique. He read government reports. He looked at minutes of meetings, He compared what officials said through a multitude of speeches and they he charted the changes and discrepancies. This is all on-the-record stuff, no anonymous sources, no leaks. He just paid attention and read widely.

Get the lesson in that?

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article2008/04/29/AR2008042902827/html