“Worst Responders”: Rhetoric of The Daily Show

Before taking their winter hiatus in December 2010, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart produced a nine-minute segment that addressed the Senate Republican filibustering of the Zadroga Act. The Zadroga Act, officially the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, would provide health care to 9/11 first responders, many of whom suffer from cancer and other illnesses that are a direct result of their exposure to toxic chemicals during their relief efforts.

The Daily Show: "Worst Responders"

Although the act would eventually be signed and enacted by President Obama, at the time of The Daily Show’s airing of this segment, the Act had only passed in the House and was being filibustered (delayed) by the Republican Party in the Senate due to their objections over how funds for the bill ($7.4 billion) would be raised (Hernandez).

In “Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric,” John Poulakos defines the practice of rhetoric as “the art which seeks to capture in opportune moments that which is appropriate and attempts to suggest that which is possible” (36). Poulakos then breaks this definition down into criteria for rhetoric using three Sophistic terms: kairos, to prepon, and to dynaton. These three criteria can be found in this Daily Show segment, and, in fact, their presence makes Stewart’s message even stronger. 

Kairos, or the opportune moment, addresses the timeliness of the speech. According to Poulakos, for rhetoric to be persuasive, the rhetor should feel there is a “sense of urgency” (39). In this case, The Daily Show writers and Stewart believed that the major news networks weren’t giving the issue the coverage that it deserved, and unless they informed their audience, the Senate Republican party would continue their filibustering, and the act wouldn’t pass.

Stewart also mentions at the beginning of the segment that this show would be the last before The Daily Show went off the air for their Christmas break. The coinciding of the coverage of the event with the Christmas season might just be a coincidence, but it still gives a heavier emotional impact than if the coverage was, say, in the middle of June.

To prepon, or the propriety of the speech, depends heavily on its context. While Stewart has, on many occasions, referred to The Daily Show as just a comedy show, there have been many instances where the tone turns serious. For example, Stewart’s first post-9/11 address and his criticism of CNBC’s Mad Money host, Jim Cramer. The inclusion of serious topics on the show is not unfamiliar to its audience and can definitely be seen as appropriate. In fact, since the show mainly deals with humor, when it does take the time to focus on more serious topics, it seems to bring more weight to those issues.

To dynaton, or the possible, is the aspect of this particular speech that makes it special. Stewart and the writers of the show saw an opportunity to not only call out major news networks on their lack of coverage, but they also realized that they were in a position to bring attention to a serious issue. On January 2, 2011, President Obama signed the Zadroga Act, putting $4.2 billion dollars into the World Trade Center Health Program, five years after the first bill failed to pass (Barrett and Bash). The White House credited The Daily Show for reigniting the push to pass the act (Madison).

Sources:

Barrett, Ted, and Dana Bash. "Congress Passes Revised 9/11 First-responders Health Benefits Bill." CNN Politics. CNN.com, 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 3 Sep. 2012.

Hernandez, Raymond. “Republicans Block U.S. Health Aid for 9/11 Workers.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 9 Dec. 2010. Web. 3 Sep. 2012.

Madison, Lucy. “White House Lauds Jon Stewart for Pushing Passage of 9/11 Health Bill.” Political Hotsheet. CBS News, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 3 Sep. 2012.