The Online News Association’s Board of Directors has selected Comedy Central’s The Daily Show for the 2026 ONA Impact Award.
For 30 years, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show has modeled a radical idea: that you can be both funny and rigorous with your reporting while remaining accessible and uncompromising about facts. The Daily Show became investigative work, fact-checking, and political accountability dressed in humor. The program’s influence extends far beyond Comedy Central; it fundamentally shifted how an entire generation of journalists thinks about the relationship between comedy and accountability.
The Daily Show will be honored at the 2026 Online Journalism Awards Celebration Oct. 1 at City Winery in New York City. The awards celebration brings together leading journalists, creators, and news innovators to celebrate the field’s most influential work.
The ONA Board of Directors’ nominating statement captures why they selected The Daily Show to receive the 2026 Impact Award: “This program has done more to inform and reach the masses through humor and relatability than many newsrooms have. Its impact is evident in the number of independent news creators now seeking to incorporate humor into their work.” In doing so, the program has reached millions of people who wouldn’t have consumed traditional news and created a new model for what satire rooted in reporting can accomplish.
Join us Oct. 1 at City Winery in New York as we celebrate The Daily Show and 30 years of holding power to account. Tickets and tables are available.
About the Impact Award
The Impact Award honors trailblazing individuals whose work in digital journalism and dedication to innovation exhibits a substantial impact on the industry, regardless of their tenure in journalism. Past winners include Andrew Losowsky, Sarah Alvarez and Candice Fortman, Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes, S. Mitra Kalita, and Gina Chua are previous winners of the Impact Award. Current and former ONA Board of Directors, current and former ONA staff and previous Impact Award recipients nominate candidates for this award. The current ONA Board of Directors selects the honoree.
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Erin McGregor
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