Politico has a story about how congressmembers and their staffs are avoiding the Colbert Report that contains this anecdote:
“My experience with that show is like herpes. It never goes away, and it itches and sometimes flares up,” said a former aide to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, after his boss appeared on the show in 2006. The conservative Georgia Republican, co-sponsor of a bill requiring that the 10 Commandments be displayed in Congress, was skewered by Colbert in a segment of “Better Know a District” for appearing to be able to name only three of the commandments.
The episode has “haunted” the office for years, the former aide said. ‘I deeply regret letting him go on the Colbert Report.”
Colbert gave the guy the dumbass demagogue herpes!
Seriously, Rep. Westmoreland isn’t haunted by Colbert. He’s haunted by the reality of his ignorant demagoguery, briefly exposed on Colbert. (Watch the video–it’s not Colbert’s editing that makes him come across as he does.) The Colbert Report is one of the few places where this sort of thing can happen anymore–and that should be the key point. Politicians are avoiding Colbert in favor of more friendly and servile venues–like news outlets.
I guess the former aide to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland has herpes.
Colbert shows them for what they are…stupid. They don’t even check out the people they go to for interviews. They are used to the mockingbird press corp throwing softballs. And these are the people who represent us? A bunch of morons. No wonder the world thinks we’re a basket case. We are – we elect the fools.
So we should feel sorry for him because his boss is a freakin’ idiot?
All that I can say about the Lynn Westmoreland had a brain, he would not have tried to pass a bill that was contrary to the intent of the Constitution. If they cannot take the heat from Colbert, they should just go to Fox where the commentators are as ignorant as the Congressmen who get skewered by Colbert. I am a big Colbert fan, but frankly, I think he blew his appearance before the congressional committee last week. He could have made more real points rather than trying to be funny, which he normally is, but I thought he was just a little obnoxious before that committee. The migrant laborers do work very hard bringing in the harvests and that is what Colbert should have stressed.
Long Live Colbert! (and on the tube!) You GO Guy!
I too thought he was a little obnoxious. The mainstream outlets are extremely obnoxious. FOX is obnoxious 24 hours a day. The “serious” network news hours are a joke. They are managed corporate mouthpieces. Comedy central does not get a pass here. John Stewart this week is was committing a Rick Sanchez, a politico, a David Brooks… creating the fiction that left and right are doing the same thing – going for balance where there is none. Equating 9/11 Truth with the raving fantasies of the right. (Hint: the 9/11 Truth movement has peer-reviewed scientific evidence and the laws of physics on their side). Long live Colbert!
This is swatting at flies. Stewart and Colbert have curdled into being Shecky Green and George Goebel. They adopt some sort of absurd “truth-telling” pose, when they are vapid dolts reading some fairly funny lines, then rubbing shoulders with our more favored sellers of snake oil and the occasional genocidal government criminal. Comedy Central is a giant con – stop thinking that the hired corporate conservative “comedian” is anything but a shill – grow up, in other words.
They adopt some sort of absurd “truth-telling” pose, when they are vapid dolts
Riiight. So, let’s see: Colbert and Stewart have shows on Comedy Central (there’s the first big clue) of course it’s a pose, Martin my dear, that’s the point. One that seems to have escaped you.
Vapid dolts? Oh, very grown up, but not if it’s a pose, sweetie. Which is it?
You know, Martin, for such a grown up, you sure are child-like. Your naivete is quite stunning in fact. That and you seem to have trouble with logic. But do keep trying to tell others how dumb they are, but you should hide your own foolishness.
I object to the almost-obligatory social network links for sharing your articles. Why don’t you include a simple email link for those of us who like your articles but value our privacy and spare time in the real world?
Colbert said boo to the Westmoreland camp and now they are frightened! Can’t wait from all the boos on Oct 30!!!!
“for” not from. Being human is a bi@#%
The country is in a sad state when we have to go to comedy shows to get accurate news. Having said that, YOU GO, STEPHEN COLBERT! YOU GO, JON STEWART!
Thanks for the endearments, Tom – if that’s the way men communicate on the interTwitter or something, I’m glad I’m off-line on all that, but you seem confused.
1. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart represent some sort of “politics” for some sort of liberalish segment – witness that FAIR here valorizes Mr. Colbert. There is a march by J Stewart, there was his fake rant on CNN – so where is there naivete in calling these clowns out for their fake “truth-telling”?
2. The pose I am referring to is the one that gets them their fan club, the one you gave you the buttons you sport on your beanie. A montage of the yuks Stewart/Colbert has had with, oh, Cheney, Kristol, A. Hun, the whole roster of of neocon terrors, would be quite a show, and where is the comedy in those scenes? You like them, Tom? You like the absurd “observations” that reveal a functioning perspective of US imperial neoliberalism when Stewart/ Colbert joshes with the eminent personages that thrill you?
3. Calling this just “comedy” and just a “pose” is nonsensical – both of them, Stewart and Colbert, have a very strong cultural presence – like, oh, say, Rush Limbaugh? So let’s ignore the content?
Martin, Stewart is the most trusted name in news, which HE finds horrifying.
Colbert is justly growing in popularity for his “full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes” approach to telling truth to power.
Of course, they piss you off; I’m very glad about that. I’m sure they would be too.
Someday there may be real news in this country, honestly reported to the kind of majority the MSM garners now – and you will scream about left wing bias, because as Colbert pointed out, “The truth has a decided left wing bias.” (And I know that despite the quote marks, the quote is probably inexact. Don’t care.)
I too have cooled on Colbert after that display in the congressional hearing. It seemed to be the final argument that we have turned into a nation of 12 year olds. The Committeewoman should have known better than to invite him and Colbert should have absolutely known his ‘character’ would be inappropriate for Congress. It may have gotten the fleeting attention of Colbert’s audience for a short time, but believe me the Internet was all about Colbert all the time. You would need a microscope to find the good it had done the plight of the migrant worker. Followers seem thrilled that he ‘stuck it to Congress’ (whatever that means or achieves) and Republicans are thrilled that the Dems made a mockery of themselves. Well done all around if the point was we actually are a nation of idiots.
Uneasyone, you you are entirely wrong about my point here. You think I, of all people, would “scream about left-wing bias”? My basic point, Einstein, is that Stewart and Colbert are Right-Wing in their neocon back-slapping and timid satire. They are fakes behind a fake persona that now has become all too real for the followers like you. Colbert, in his interviews, is a devout Roman Catholic who abhors leftists. Stewart is a shucking and jiving Hollywood check-casher who abhors leftists. Both are examples of the immorality and corruption of the imaginary “opposition.”
Actually, there is real news in this country–you just have to look for it. Colbert and Stewart are funny, but the idea that they’re speaking truth to power is a stretch. They occasionally do, but it’s mostly to skewer pretentious fools like Glenn Beck or third-rate reliable hacks like Dinesh D’Souza. The only time I watch them is when a link to a particular show of theirs is put up by someone like Glenn Greenwald. You want some decent news reporting? Try Amy Goodman at Democracy Now–and be sure to get FAIR, and Harper’s, and The Nation.
yes! amy goodman and public reality radio—thom hartman—democracy now—-dianne rheim—these are where to get accurate reporting!
It’s just comedy.
Smile, Laugh, Relax….
If you don’t like it, turn the freaken channel
Guys he is a funny man.Nothing more.He and Stewart.I suppose if congress got a little comic relief, all well and good.Hope it didn’t cost taxpayers a dime.Didn’t they have a get together in Washington to mock people who basically believe differently from them, and are maybe even (ick)spiritual?Hey good for them it is a free country. Laugh clown laugh
@maturin42
The 9/11 truth movement is backed by pseudoscience that passes for actual science to the layman, most of which has been thoroughly debunked in a popular mechanics issue. As an avid reader of scientific journals, I am aware that reputable scientists are not backing the 9/11 truth movement. There are plenty of real horrible things our country has done for real that are worthy of your criticism though.
Colbert (and Stuart) have made a comedy out of our news because the newspapers have made a tragedy out of their business. If the news reports were ethical and balanced Colbert & Stewart would not be funny at all… Thanks to Colbert we can understand how far the so-called mighty have fallen
I hope this doesn’t mean that Westmoreland will offer legislation but I’m sure he’ll try to memorize the 10 commandments.
Jim Greene,Orlando
Strange thing isColbert isn’t a Reich winger, he just plays one of TV. I haven’t gotten the impression he “abhors leftists” I would like to know where you, Martin. One way to disarm the opposition is to to say they aren’t what they say they are. I’ve seen it before—impugn your opposition, saying they are like you (who you really are Martin.) A good psyops trick as long as non-thinking types hear it and automatically believe it without another thought.
I would be interested in any proof you claim to have Martin.
Stephen Colbert has been a hero of mine since his appearance at the 2006 White House Correspondent’s Dinner. (If you have not seen it, it is required viewing.) The reason the right wing trashes Colbert is because they got ‘taken’ at the Correspondent’s Dinner when somebody high up in Bush’s circle was under the impression that he was a true right wing humorist.
The other reason they don’t like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is that they tell the truth and truth is the enemy of the right wing.
Don Im right wing and I love both.I hear little trashing of them.Just bemusement.They are a hoot.Ok I cant think of a comedian that I would call a hero of mine but they are funny.Just as funny when they lampoon Obama and the left.Of course I would laugh all the harder if they just said it like it is that Obama is a dumb baffoo of a boy president that cant chew gum and walk at the same time.But I like both sides of the hammer.I did love your line” truth is the enemy of the right wing”.You sound like one of those misguided people who actually will admit to voting for this nimrod.
Colbert was the subject of a long story in Rolling Stone, where he spouted off about the things he didn’t like, not in the guise of his faux O”Reilly, but in his “real” voice of a devout Catholic hired to play a role, and if you want to check out how he abhors leftists, read those words. He is a line-reading simpleton.
Stop with the amateur psychoanalysis, Mr. Gaunt – I don’t like anything about the cult around these two supposed “heroes” of the left, who are nothing of the kind, who are getting chummier with O’Reilly and the conservatives day by day. Turn them off, MT Houston says so eloquently. So why are they in the “news” news every other day, then – is this how bad politics has gotten?
Martin– Yeth, but worth.
THe left is unable to come-out to who and what they are.Where can a hero exist in that?