Salon.com > Stephen Colbert http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 13:20:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Is Stephen Colbert just kidding? http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/is_stephen_colbert_just_kidding/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/is_stephen_colbert_just_kidding/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12198841 Later today, Stephen Colbert will host a rally with Herman Cain in South Carolina. It's part of his increasingly complicated involvement in his home state's GOP primary. Colbert wants voters to back Cain as a way of supporting Colbert's run for "president of the United States of South Carolina." Write-in candidates aren't allowed, hence the partnership with the one-time GOP front-runner, who qualified for the ballot before dropping out of the race amid controversy.

Who's kidding who? Is the joke on Cain? On South Carolina voters? Or is Colbert not joking at all? His super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorow, Tomorrow -- technically now in the capable hands of his colleague Jon Stewart -- has run a number of joke ads on TV. (One involves a lengthy attack on Colbert himself: "America is in crisis, and Stephen Colbert is turning our election into a circus. ... Why is the 't'' in his name silent? What else is he silent about? Letting murderers out of jail?") But Colbert and Stewart also spent a significant segment of Tuesday night's "Daily Show" explaining the dos and don'ts of super PAC coordination -- a satirical cover for discussion of an undeniably serious subject.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/is_stephen_colbert_just_kidding/feed/ 35 Fun with federal election law http://www.salon.com/2012/01/18/fun_with_federal_election_law/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/18/fun_with_federal_election_law/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12188451 The grand experiment launched late last week continues: Stephen Colbert is exploring a run for president, while Jon Stewart manages Colbert's former super PAC -- and enthusiastically smears the candidate's would-be Republican primary rivals in the process. The problem with managing a PAC in support of your business partner's campaign, however, is that not a whole lot of it feels legal. (Even if it almost certainly is.) That's why Stewart and Colbert powwowed with their lawyer on "The Daily Show" last night -- just to make sure their "good"-faith efforts at non-coordination were still strictly within the bounds of the law.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/18/fun_with_federal_election_law/feed/ 7 Colbert: Who cares if Rick Perry can't speak? http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/morning_clip_14/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/morning_clip_14/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:29:00 +0000 Talk is cheap. That's what Stephen Colbert thinks anyway. While many wrote off Rick Perry after an excruciating debate performance last Thursday, the Comedy Central host remains unconvinced that elocution is really all that important. As Colbert points out, "when the moment of truth comes, [the president] pushes the button. He doesn't convince the button to push itself."

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Rick Perry's Debate Gaffe & Arizona's Primary Date
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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/28/morning_clip_14/feed/ 10 Colbert crowns Rick Perry winner of GOP debate http://www.salon.com/2011/09/09/colbert_jobs_speech/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/09/colbert_jobs_speech/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/09/colbert_jobs_speech Wednesday night's GOP debate had the punditsphere a-twitter over the contrasting debate styles of the race's two front runners, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. But there can only be one winner, and Stephen Colbert could clearly see that it was none other than Rick Parry (with an "a"). On the "Report" last night, Colbert broke down Perry's remarkable debate performance by highlighting a few of the Texas governor's key strategies: Comparing himself to Galileo, boasting about his record of executions in Texas, and, of course, declaring that social security is a Ponzi scheme.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/09/colbert_jobs_speech/feed/ 7 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/07/20/pop_five/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/20/pop_five/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/20/pop_five 1. Fake Apple of the day: A blogger documents Beijing's amazingly realistic Apple stores that aren't really Apple stores. What are they, then? Art project? Knock-off stores selling fake Mac products? An inside joke by Steve Jobs? Who knows!

2. Real Doherty of the day: Shannon Doherty will star in a reality show for WEtv with fiancé Kurt Iswarienko about how hard it is to plan their wedding. You just know she's doing it to piss off former "90210" costar Tori Spelling.

3. Out of character of the day: Stephen Colbert plays it straight in this moving "It Gets Better" video.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/20/pop_five/feed/ 2 Colbert gets conditional OK on campaign finance http://www.salon.com/2011/06/30/us_colbert_political_money/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/30/us_colbert_political_money/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:42:27 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/06/30/us_colbert_political_money The Federal Election Commission said Thursday that comedian Stephen Colbert can use his TV show's resources to boost his political action committee, but he must disclose some major expenses as in-kind contributions from the show's corporate owners.

Colbert played it straight during his appearance before the commission, letting his attorney do most of the talking while saving his trademark quips for a crowd that gathered outside the commission building after the meeting.

"I don't accept the status quo," he told the crowd, brandishing a portable credit card processing machine. "I do accept Visa, Mastercard or American Express."

Many in the crowd handed Colbert their credit cards or dollar bills as contributions.

Asked what point he was trying to make about corporate America, Colbert did not miss a beat.

"None," he quipped. "I want their money."

Colbert, who plays a conservative TV pundit on "The Colbert Report," is forming Colbert Super PAC, a type of political action committee which will allow him to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals. The money will be used to support or oppose candidates in the 2012 elections through independent expenditures such as TV ads.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/30/us_colbert_political_money/feed/ 10 Stephen Colbert grills Keith Olbermann http://www.salon.com/2011/06/16/colbert_morning_clip/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/16/colbert_morning_clip/#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/06/16/colbert_morning_clip On last night's "Colbert Report," a nearly pantsless Stephen Colbert (who had donned his "short shorts" for a bit on Iran's new fashion crackdown) sat down with former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. Olbermann, whose new show premieres on Monday, told us how he's whiled away the 145 days since his last on-air broadcast -- and attempted to answer Colbert's pointed question: "Why are you so hard to work with?"

Watch the interview here:

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/16/colbert_morning_clip/feed/ 11 Colbert on Breitbart’s Weiner photo “betrayal” http://www.salon.com/2011/06/10/colbert_breitbart/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/10/colbert_breitbart/#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/06/10/colbert_breitbart As Salon's Alex Pareene noted yesterday, Andrew Breitbart's alleged intention to keep an X-rated photo of Anthony Weiner private was more than slightly undermined when, during an appearance on the Opie and Anthony radio show, the conservative author showed the image to everyone around him in the broadcast studio. (The photo was then tweeted by one of the show's presenters, and has since circulated widely.)

This subject was taken up last night by Stephen Colbert, who likewise seemed skeptical of Breitbart's excuse (the commentator insists he wasn't aware there were video cameras operating in the studio when he passed the photo around). Colbert laments: "How humiliating for Andrew Breitbart to have his private photo of Anthony Weiner's private parts just splashed out there on the Internet without his consent."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/10/colbert_breitbart/feed/ 7 Newt’s “sheep” statement as performance art http://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/lithgow_gingrich_reading/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/lithgow_gingrich_reading/#comments Fri, 20 May 2011 12:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/05/20/lithgow_gingrich_reading Earlier this week, Newt Gingrich's press secretary, Rick Tyler, sent the following message to the Huffington Post, in an attempt to do some serious PR firefighting for his candidate:

The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/lithgow_gingrich_reading/feed/ 13 Stephen Colbert tweets falsehoods about Jon Kyl http://www.salon.com/2011/04/13/stephen_colbert_tweets_jon_kyl/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/13/stephen_colbert_tweets_jon_kyl/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:14:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/04/13/stephen_colbert_tweets_jon_kyl You may recall that last week, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl claimed that "well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does" was abortions. This turned out to be incredibly false. So, the Kyl camp backpedaled, saying that the senator's remarks were not intended as "factual statements" -- which was both absurd, and fodder for mockery. Enter Stephen Colbert.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/13/stephen_colbert_tweets_jon_kyl/feed/ 11 Neil Patrick Harris and Christina Hendricks in good “Company” http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live This must be the year the live concerts realized they could make way more money if they started filming their productions. We've seen the Arcade Fire, Duran Duran and the National all take part in a new media collaboration with famous directors to have their shows live-streamed on the Internet. And now Broadway's starting to come around as well, which ostensibly should allow them to ease up on their harsh bootlegging policy. (I'm still mad about getting kicked out of "Phantom of the Opera" because I brought in a recorder during a school field trip.)

Stephen Sondheim's "Company" will be getting the cinematic treatment this April, when the New York Philharmonic's version of the show will be taped for a June film release. Usually I'd wonder who would go pay $11 to sit in a movie theater and watch a play, but the lineup of "Company" is so good, it might as well be a blockbuster. Not only is Neil Patrick Harris -- that superstar of every medium -- playing the happy bachelor Bobby, but he'll be hamming it up with Patti LuPone, one of the biggest names on Broadway.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/the_company_nph_philharmonic_live/feed/ 14 Stephen Colbert celebrates the Constitution http://www.salon.com/2011/03/15/stephen_colbert_constitution_amendment/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/15/stephen_colbert_constitution_amendment/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:16:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/03/15/stephen_colbert_constitution_amendment Stephen Colbert is famously, unabashedly patriotic. From the bald eagle that flies across the screen in his show's opening to the many, sometimes belabored ways he tries to dig through political rhetoric for the American Dream. With the next batch of new episodes stalled until next week, the Colbert Report producers chose to create a series of mash-up videos that celebrate the U.S. Constitution and Stephen's many segments devoted to these basic American rights.

What better to start with than the First Amendment? Stephen's particularly interested in freedom of speech through arson:

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
On Topic: 1st Amendment - Freedom of Religion, Speech and the Press
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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/15/stephen_colbert_constitution_amendment/feed/ 0 Stephen Colbert on anti-Obama obituaries http://www.salon.com/2011/03/03/colbert_obama_eulogy_jews_pope/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/03/colbert_obama_eulogy_jews_pope/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/03/03/colbert_obama_eulogy_jews_pope On his show Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert introduced viewers to a story originally reported by Salon's Justin Elliott about a bizarre trend: Obituaries containing pleas to send -- in lieu of flowers -- money to efforts to unseat Barack Obama:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/03/colbert_obama_eulogy_jews_pope/feed/ 8 Stephen Colbert on Bill O’Reilly, Wisconsin and the prank calling ban http://www.salon.com/2011/03/03/colbert_wisconsin_oreilly_fox_prank/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/03/colbert_wisconsin_oreilly_fox_prank/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:04:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/2011/03/03/colbert_wisconsin_oreilly_fox_prank Stephen Colbert continues to be confused why so many people care about the janitors and kindergarten teachers protesting in Wisconsin. And what's with all the liberal rage?!

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Wisconsin Prank Call Bill
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/03/colbert_wisconsin_oreilly_fox_prank/feed/ 2 The scandal no one talks about: Income inequality http://www.salon.com/2011/03/02/mother_jones_colbert_income_inequality/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/02/mother_jones_colbert_income_inequality/#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:36:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/02/mother_jones_colbert_income_inequality The March/April issue of Mother Jones magazine has a fascinating account of the growing income gap and staggering economic inequality in America. Bolstered by a selection of illuminating infographics, MJ writer Kevin Drum paints a bleak picture of opportunity in the U.S.:

Income inequality has grown dramatically since the mid-'70s—far more in the US than in most advanced countries—and the gap is only partly related to college grads outperforming high-school grads. Rather, the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and—even more dramatically—among the top 0.1 percent. It has, in other words, been CEOs and Wall Street traders at the very tippy-top who are hoovering up vast sums of money from everyone, even those who by ordinary standards are pretty well off.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/02/mother_jones_colbert_income_inequality/feed/ 89 Did Anonymous hack Colbert? http://www.salon.com/2011/03/01/colbert_report_anonymous_attack/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/01/colbert_report_anonymous_attack/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:02:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/01/colbert_report_anonymous_attack Stephen Colbert dedicated the first portion of his show last night to a nefarious breach of security at the Report -- when an image of Guy Fawkes (i.e., the masked dude from "V for Vendetta") was super-imposed over his face during a broadcast last week. Colbert blamed the intrusion on the hacker collective Anonymous, a shadowy organization that also targeted Americans for Prosperity, the political action group headed by the Koch brothers. To Anonymous, Stephen said:

Lay off Americans for Prosperity. If you've got a problem with the Koch brothers, go after them the democratic way -- by funneling millions of dollars into a front organization to launch attack ads against teachers.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/01/colbert_report_anonymous_attack/feed/ 6 Huffington Post fires back at Stephen Colbert with new site http://www.salon.com/2011/02/18/colbert_colbuffington_post_huffbert_nation_huffington/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/18/colbert_colbuffington_post_huffbert_nation_huffington/#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:51:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/18/colbert_colbuffington_post_huffbert_nation_huffington On his show last night, Stephen Colbert recycled his announcement about starting his new business venture: a Colbert-branded version of the Huffington Post called the Colbuffington Re-Post. Pricetag? $316 billion. Naturally, he wanted just a million bucks more than AOL paid for the Arianna Huffington's popular news aggregation site.

Colbert followed up with a complaint that HuffPost yet again recycled his content by posting his video. And then things get really confusing:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/18/colbert_colbuffington_post_huffbert_nation_huffington/feed/ 6 Stephen Colbert creates own version of HuffPo http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/stephen_colbert_colbuffington_post_huffington/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/stephen_colbert_colbuffington_post_huffington/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:46:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/17/stephen_colbert_colbuffington_post_huffington After hearing the news that AOL had acquired the Huffington Post for $315 million, Stephen Colbert checked out the business model. Between charging old ladies $10 an hour for dial-up service and re-blogging other people's content, Colbert said, it doesn't seem that tough.

Dahling, I happened to cruise by your $300 million website ,and you know what I find? A whole lot of me! You've achieved the impossible: making me angry while looking at pictures of myself.

Obvious answer? Re-blog the whole site under the Colbert banner. Behold:

http://www.colbuffingtonrepost.com 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/stephen_colbert_colbuffington_post_huffington/feed/ 3 Colbert Report takes on Egypt, Berlusconi simultaneously http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/colbert_report_egypt_berlusconi/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/colbert_report_egypt_berlusconi/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:17:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/16/colbert_report_egypt_berlusconi Stephen Colbert is making up lost time after a week on hiatus, and as such combining multiple current events into one segment. Which works out perfect, because which two news stories have more in common than a democratic uprising in Egypt and the Berlusconian tradition of bunga-bunga?

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Italian Bunga-Bunga Parties & Egyptian Democracy
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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/colbert_report_egypt_berlusconi/feed/ 1 Jon Stewart’s Seven Deadly Sins mashups: Lust http://www.salon.com/2011/02/08/jon_stewart_lust_seven_deadly_sins/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/08/jon_stewart_lust_seven_deadly_sins/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:09:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/08/jon_stewart_lust_seven_deadly_sins In a week of reruns, "The Daily Show" has released seven mashup videos corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins. For a little early Valentine's Day spirit, here is lust.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - The Seven Deadly Sins - Lust Mash-up
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

 

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