Table of Contents

Acknowledgements. Introduction: Great Book, or the Greatest Book?. Segment One: Headlines: Faux News is Good News: . 1. Amusing Ourselves to Death with Television News: Jon Stewart, Neil Postman, and the Huxleyan Warning: Gerald J. Erion (Medaille College). 2. The Fake, the False, and the Fictional: The Daily Show as News Source: Michael Gettings (Hollins University). 3. The Fake News as the Fifth Estate: Rachael Sotos (New School for General Studies). 4. The Good, the Bad, and The Daily Show: Jason Zinser (Florida State University). Segment Two: Correspondent's Report: Jon Stewart (Not Mill) as Philosopher, Sort Of: . 5. Jon Stewart and the New Public Intellectual: Terrance MacMullan (Eastern Washington University). 6. Stewart and Socrates: Speaking Truth to Power: Judith Barad (Indiana State University). 7. Can The Daily Show Save Democracy? Jon Stewart as the Gadfly of Gotham: Steven Michels and Michael Ventimiglia (Buffalo State College and Sacred Heart University). 8. Jon the Cynic: Dog Philosophy 101: Alejandro Barcenas (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Segment Three: Regular Feature: Critical Thinking and the War on Bullshit: . 9. Public Discourse and the Stewart Model of Critical Thinking: Roben Torosyan (Fairfield University). 10. The Daily Show's Expose of Political Rhetoric: Liam P. Dempsey (Dalhousie University). 11. Bullshit and Political Spin: Is the Medium the Massage?: Kimberly A. Blessing and Joseph J. Marren (both Buffalo State College). 12. Bullshitting Bullshitters and the Bullshit They Say: Andrew Sneddon (University of Ottawa). Segment Four: Interview: Religion, God, and Darwin: . 13. The Challenge of Religious Diversity in "This Week in God": Matthew S. Lopresti (Hawaii Pacific University). 14. Contingency, Irony, and "This Week in God": Brad Frazier (Lee University). 15. Evolution, Schmevolution: Jon Stewart and the Culture Wars: Massimo Pigliucci (Stony Brook University). Segment Five: Checking in with Stephen Colbert/Your Moment of Zen: Beyond The Daily Show: . 16. America (The Book): Textbook Parody and Democratic Theory: Steve Vanderheiden (University of Minnesota Duluth). 17. The Daily Show/Colbert Report Guide to Neologizing: Jason Holt (Acadia University). 18. Truthiness, Self-Deception, and Intuitive Knowledge: Amber L. Griffioen (University of Iowa). 19. Stephen Colbert, Irony, and Speaking Truthiness to Power: Kevin S. Decker (Eastern Washington University). Senior Philosophical Correspondents. Index

About the Author

Jason Holt is Assistant Professor at Acadia University. He is author of Blindsight and the Nature of Consciousness (2003).

Reviews

"The Daily Show and Philosophy brilliantly shows how rabid partisanship, ineffective media, shoddy public discourse, and hyperbolic book blurbs spell doom for America." Dave Baggett, editor of Harry Potter and Philosophy and Hitchcock and Philosophy