Jon Stewart Supporting Striking Daily Show And Colbert Report Writers.. Where’s The Truthiness?

What’s happening with Jon Stewart‘s plans to cover the salaries of writers for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report while they’re on the picket line?

Yesterday, Jeff Bercovici reported over at Mixed Media/Portfolio that Stewart would be covering salaries for at least two weeks. But an update that Bercovici posted afterwards makes the situation seem murkier:

UPDATE, 2:20 P.M.: Confusion: Jon Stewart’s rep just called back to deny the information above. I checked back with my source, who set me straight on a few details: Stewart is not paying writers out of his own pocket, but through Busboy, his production company. And it’s not just writers who are getting their salaries covered but all the shows’ employees. “He’s hoping that it wraps up amicably and quickly, and over the course of that time he wants to look out for his employees,” he says.

But when I ran this by Stewart’s rep, he emailed back, “While I hesitate to knock down every rumor that comes up, the assertion that Jon and/or Busboy Productions will be paying for the staff is false and we have no further comment beyond this at this time.”

I’m pretty sure there’s some truthiness here (sorry), but it may take some more digging to determine exactly what the situation is.

Hmm.

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