Stewart is a disgusting hypocrite, rolling out the red carpet whenever the bloated fear monger he was just making fun of has a new book to sell. How could you like that? He was using "cynical" to mean: be a bitter petty asshole about everything - good or bad - all the time. You could argue that, hosting the Daily Show, Jon has seen his share of the scum of humanity, and so his default distrust of people is justified. But what kind of life is that? If the world can be what society makes of it, and the audience you reach makes up society, then Conan's plea, to young people in particular, makes sense.
