I think goal is not to be "right" but to be funny. I don't think it's necessarily a conservative problem you're just looking at a well oiled Daily Show machine vs a bunch of guys who have no idea what they're doing. The Daily Show works because it has good writers and Jon has been around forever and knows how to find good content that is a joke in itself. Some of the funniest moments are when the clips are short and ridiculous and it just cuts to Jon's stunned face after the video. The Harrison Ford part could easily be used better. The video itself is funny but you need someone who's not a shit comic standing next to a tv woodenly telling jokes off the prompter like it's a politics tosh.0.
You also need the contrast of serious news with humor. Which means everything from the sets, the writing, the reporting, the wardrobe, everything. Stewart has a desk, a big newsroom, he's writing stuff down, he has his reporters out in the field. It's all required. The Flipside has none of that and after the jokes they move over to a few lounge chairs to talk about capitalism. Low budget, low effort.