A presentation about the philosophical underpinnings of John Stewart's use of satire.

1. The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
The Jesting Accountant
Philosophy
Porter: How John Stewart’s use of satire “accounts” for
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
contradictions in network news media
Appendix
Works Cited
Faris Chebib
Works Cited
Simon Fraser University
February 7, 2011

2. Some Concepts
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
1 Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion grows longer,
Philosophy
Porter:
the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler
Accounting
Daston:
approaches 1.”
Impersonality
Appendix
Works Cited
Works Cited

3. Some Concepts
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
1 Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion grows longer,
Philosophy
Porter:
the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler
Accounting
Daston:
approaches 1.”
Impersonality
Appendix
2 Satire: A genre in which short-comings and abuses are
Works Cited held up to ridicule with the intent of shaming individuals.
Works Cited

4. Some Concepts
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
1 Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion grows longer,
Philosophy
Porter:
the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler
Accounting
Daston:
approaches 1.”
Impersonality
Appendix
2 Satire: A genre in which short-comings and abuses are
Works Cited held up to ridicule with the intent of shaming individuals.
Works Cited 3 Ad hominem:“an attempt to link the validity of a premise
to a characteristic or belief of the person advocating the
premise”

5. The US Media Landscape
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Fox News: Constantly use false terms of objectivity.
Introduction
Claim to be unbiased. Fox News also holds triple the
Some
Philosophy market share of other network news organizations in the
Porter:
Accounting US.
Daston:
Impersonality
Appendix
Works Cited
Works Cited

6. The US Media Landscape
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Fox News: Constantly use false terms of objectivity.
Introduction
Claim to be unbiased. Fox News also holds triple the
Some
Philosophy market share of other network news organizations in the
Porter:
Accounting US.
Daston:
Impersonality
The Daily Show: Never intended to be a serious news
Appendix
show, but after 11 years is one of the most important
Works Cited
voices in US politics.
Works Cited
In 2004, “21% of 18–34-year-olds regularly learned about
the 2004 presidential campaign from comedy programs.”
In the same poll, a nearly equal percent of respondents
reported getting their campaign information from other
network news sources (Feldman, 2007, p. 276).

7. Clip: Fox, John Stewart, and Nazis
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
Philosophy
Porter:
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality Why is Stewart such a popular news source?
Appendix Let’s examine an incident from 3 weeks ago. . .
Works Cited
Works Cited

8. Clip Review
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
Philosophy
Porter: Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) compared Republican
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
rhetoric to Joesph Goebbels’s Nazi propaganda techniques.
Appendix John Stewart rebuked the congressman for the comparison on
Works Cited the previous night’s show. He examines the hypocrisy of Fox
Works Cited News’ response – particular the response of Megyn Kelly.

9. The Jester
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
A quote from “Fools are Everywhere”:
Introduction
“The jester everywhere employed the same techniques
Some
Philosophy to carry out this delicate role, and it would take an
Porter:
Accounting obtuse king or emperor not to realize what he was
Daston:
Impersonality driving at, since ‘other court functionaries cooked
Appendix
up the king’s facts for him before delivery; the
Works Cited
jester delivered them raw.’ An informal survey of
Works Cited
the man in the street has shown that most people will
pinpoint the jester’s right to speak his mind as one of
his salient characteristics” (Otto, 2001).
Note that the jester takes on a role of historical reflection.

10. Tying Together Philosophy: Porter
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction A key observation: John Stewart does not directly attack
Some those he satirizes. Instead, he relies on his news staff to
Philosophy
Porter:
vigilantly watch and assemble documentation about the
Accounting
Daston: individual being ridiculed.
Impersonality
Appendix
Works Cited
Works Cited

11. Tying Together Philosophy: Porter
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction A key observation: John Stewart does not directly attack
Some those he satirizes. Instead, he relies on his news staff to
Philosophy
Porter:
vigilantly watch and assemble documentation about the
Accounting
Daston: individual being ridiculed.
Impersonality
Appendix By keeping a constant watch on public individuals,
Works Cited Stewart is in a way practising a form of accounting – video
Works Cited documentation (in the name of satire) as opposed to
double-entry bookkeeping.

12. Tying Together Philosophy: Porter
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction A key observation: John Stewart does not directly attack
Some those he satirizes. Instead, he relies on his news staff to
Philosophy
Porter:
vigilantly watch and assemble documentation about the
Accounting
Daston: individual being ridiculed.
Impersonality
Appendix By keeping a constant watch on public individuals,
Works Cited Stewart is in a way practising a form of accounting – video
Works Cited documentation (in the name of satire) as opposed to
double-entry bookkeeping.
This form of accounting is a key part of Porter’s
conception of methods of objectivity (Porter, 1992).

13. Tying Together Philosophy: Daston
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
“The values of aperspectival objectivity are
undeniably curious ones, and may well be of dubious
Introduction
merit. But moral values they undeniably
Some
Philosophy are. . . ” (Daston, 1992, p. 121).
Porter:
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
Appendix
Works Cited
Works Cited

14. Tying Together Philosophy: Daston
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
“The values of aperspectival objectivity are
undeniably curious ones, and may well be of dubious
Introduction
merit. But moral values they undeniably
Some
Philosophy are. . . ” (Daston, 1992, p. 121).
Porter:
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
Stewart’s self-belittlement allows him to play the part of
Appendix
an observer. This builds trust with his audience.
Works Cited
Works Cited

15. Tying Together Philosophy: Daston
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
“The values of aperspectival objectivity are
undeniably curious ones, and may well be of dubious
Introduction
merit. But moral values they undeniably
Some
Philosophy are. . . ” (Daston, 1992, p. 121).
Porter:
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
Stewart’s self-belittlement allows him to play the part of
Appendix
an observer. This builds trust with his audience.
Works Cited
Works Cited By acting as a broadcast journalist, Stewart is able to
parody network news reporters. (The character of Stephen
Colbert takes this method to its logical extreme).

16. Tying Together Philosophy: Daston
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
“The values of aperspectival objectivity are
undeniably curious ones, and may well be of dubious
Introduction
merit. But moral values they undeniably
Some
Philosophy are. . . ” (Daston, 1992, p. 121).
Porter:
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
Stewart’s self-belittlement allows him to play the part of
Appendix
an observer. This builds trust with his audience.
Works Cited
Works Cited By acting as a broadcast journalist, Stewart is able to
parody network news reporters. (The character of Stephen
Colbert takes this method to its logical extreme).
By using the video medium, Stewart is able to
effectively allow his targets of satire to ridicule
themselves

17. A final word on impersonality
The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
Some
Philosophy
Porter: Even with all the news to be garnered, The Daily Show is
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
still a form of comedy: it doesn’t have to be “right”.
Appendix A majority of Stewart’s targets are that of the media, not
Works Cited politicians(Feldman, 2007). What does this say about his
Works Cited role in the methodology of journalistic objectification?

18. Appendix: Stewart’s “Proof”
The Jesting
Accountant Proof.
Faris Chebib
Introduction
P1 Kelly is a hypocrite iff she states that she is against an
Some
action which she has done before.
Philosophy
Porter: P2 Kelly claims that she is against equating politicians to the
Accounting
Daston:
Impersonality
Nazis.
Appendix P3 Kelly claims that no such rhetoric has occurred on her
Works Cited programme.
Works Cited
P4 Kelly has hosted a guest who made equivalence relations
to the Nazi party (as evidenced in the clip. This is
arguable, as the guest spoke of “Brown-shirted brutes”;
Stewart points out that this is not a complete comparison)
C1 Kelly is a hypocrite (P1, P2, P3, P4).

19. The Jesting
Accountant
Faris Chebib
Introduction
1 Introduction
Some
Philosophy
Porter:
Accounting
2 Some Philosophy
Daston:
Impersonality Porter: Accounting
Appendix Daston: Impersonality
Works Cited
Works Cited
3 Appendix
4 Works Cited

20. The Jesting Daston, Lorraine (1992). “Objectivity and the Escape from
Accountant
Perspective”. In: Social studies of science 22.4, p. 597. issn:
Faris Chebib
0306-3127.
Introduction Feldman, L. (Aug. 2007). “The news about comedy: Young
Some
Philosophy
audiences, The Daily Show, and evolving notions of
Porter:
Accounting
journalism”. In: Journalism 8.4, pp. 406–427. issn: 1464-8849.
Daston:
Impersonality doi: 10.1177/1464884907078655.
Appendix Otto, B.K. (2001). Fools are everywhere: the court jester
Works Cited around the world. University of Chicago Press. isbn:
Works Cited 0226640914.
Porter, T.M. (1992). “Quantification and the accounting ideal
in science”. In: Social studies of science 22.4, p. 633. issn:
0306-3127.