The Union Leader picks up on a trend: This time around, “The Daily Show,” host Jon Stewart and its on-air comedians-turned-correspondents command a respect among media types and politicians alike that belies the fact that the show — as Stewart himself points out a lot — is on “basic cable.” Witness the lineup for last night’s “town hall” media panel discussion, hosted by Comedy Central at the Center of New Hampshire in Manchester: NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw; Joe Klein, a senior writer for Time magazine and author of “Primary Colors”; former Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, who recently dropped her Presidential bid — and New Hampshire’s junior senator, John Sununu. Stewart moderated the “off-air” discussion, which took aim at the show’s two favorites topics: politics and the media. Sununu on Friday joked he was “petrified” about appearing on the panel.