That's right - I said the Sunday Styles section

There is an article in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times about urban hipsters who have become obsessed with up-to-the-minute news about the financial crisis, and to a lesser extent its potential impact on the election. In Overfeeding on Information, Alex Williams reminds us that during the post-9/11 news frenzy Google Reader, YouTube and Twitter did not exist to provide the non-stop stream of information currently available.

“Financial markets swing hundreds of points within an hour; poll numbers shift. This means that news these days has an unbelievably short shelf life, news addicts said. If you haven’t checked the headlines in the last half-hour, the world may already have changed.”

If this article is any indication of the increased demand among the general public for accurate and timely news, then there should be some money to make in the news game during this crisis. I would even argue that the more traditional news outlets will fare better in the short-term, as I imagine people revert to those sources for baseline information. (This is assuming that the news outlets are financially stable enough to stay afloat.)

As for The Daily Show...
In an article about the impact margin calls have had on the price of some stocks the Times reported Monday that “Sumner M. Redstone, the chairman of Viacom and CBS, disclosed that he would sell $400 million in shares in those companies to pay down a loan.” However, I imagine that as long as Viacom has a cable through which to broadcast, they will keep Jon Stewart on television. The return on investment for The Daily Show has to be quite high -- they do very little original reporting and fake every remote shot. And, as the need for comic relief increases I predict the show (and others like it) will see ratings increase as a result of the crisis.