Salon.com > The Colbert Report http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Come back, “Colbert Report”! http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/come_back_colbert_report/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/come_back_colbert_report/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12377831 Where's Stephen? On Wednesday, fans eager to attend a taping of "The Colbert Report" were shocked to learn the show had been abruptly canceled. The situation turned to one of mass withdrawal symptoms Thursday as the show still didn't return; Comedy Central issued a terse announcement that the show was shut down due to "unforeseen circumstances." It was the first time in the show's seven-year history that it's had to cancel taping.

Questions continue about whether Colbert and his nation will return Monday (the show doesn't tape Fridays). The leading theory is that the sudden hiatus has to do with the host's 91-year-old mother. The Wall Street Journal reports that "people familiar with the show" attribute the sudden suspension of production to "an emergency in Mr. Colbert’s family."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/come_back_colbert_report/feed/ 18 Colbert assesses GOP primary insanity http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/colbert_assesses_gop_primary_insanity/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/colbert_assesses_gop_primary_insanity/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12203061 Last night on "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert checked in with the Republican candidates for president and took stock of the nominating contest. The verdict: It's been a weird few days for the Republican Party, huh? Mitt Romney, who looked like the inevitable nominee after a pair of victories, found out on Thursday that he never actually won the Iowa caucuses. Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich, the man best positioned to seize the momentum and defeat Romney in tomorrow's South Carolina primary, faces some hash allegations from his second wife, Marianne. What else? Rick Perry dropped out of the race, and proceeded to endorse Gingrich anyway. And Rick Santorum said something weird about couches.

The worst, though, might be the vicious attacks leveled against quazi-candidate Stephen Colbert -- and by his former super PAC, no less.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/colbert_assesses_gop_primary_insanity/feed/ 2 Colbert super PAC wonders if Mitt Romney is a serial killer http://www.salon.com/2012/01/17/colbert_super_pac_wonders_if_mitt_romney_is_a_serial_killer/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/17/colbert_super_pac_wonders_if_mitt_romney_is_a_serial_killer/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:04:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12181741 This past Thursday, Stephen Colbert handed over control of his much-publicized super PAC to Jon Stewart in order to explore a run for the Republican nomination. Over the weekend, the PAC began showing a campaign ad in South Carolina that equates Mitt Romney with a serial killer, based on his work at Bain Capital. Did Colbert go too far? Well, of course not, because, as he pointed out on his show last night, election law prohibits him from coordinating with the PAC. So, clearly, Colbert (like all the rest of the candidates who just happen to have the support of super PAC money) remains helpless to stop his former organization from continuing to air its ads about "Mitt the Ripper." Totally helpless. Right?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/17/colbert_super_pac_wonders_if_mitt_romney_is_a_serial_killer/feed/ 13 Colbert for president? http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/colbert_for_president/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/colbert_for_president/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:42:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12149831 What to do if you're Stephen Colbert? The "Report" host is surging in Republican primary polls (despite not being an actual candidate) and the temptation to explore a run for president grows larger by the day. The problem, however, is that candidates are prohibited by federal election law from operating a super PAC, which Colbert very publicly does.

The Comedy Central host solved that problem last night, when he filed the one page worth of requisite paperwork to declare his colleague Jon Stewart the new steward of the Colbert Super PAC, leaving him free to explore the possibility of higher office.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/colbert_for_president/feed/ 20 Colbert sounds off on Trump debate withdrawal http://www.salon.com/2011/12/14/colbert_sounds_off_on_trump_debate_withdrawal/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/14/colbert_sounds_off_on_trump_debate_withdrawal/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:39:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10347201 Donald Trump announced yesterday that he would no longer moderate of the upcoming Newsmax Republican debate, thus ending weeks of back-and-forth that saw every candidate except Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum withdraw from the event. Of course, Trump didn't quit because his presence at the debate risked descending it into some sort of bizarre media sideshow -- no, no -- but because he refused to rule out a third-party run for president. Right.

OK, sure, we all probably could have predicted all this from a mile away, but it took Stephen Colbert to weigh in on the development with the poetry of the Donald himself:

Folks, I would be lying if I didn't say I saw this coming.  Donald Trump is a friend. He's my best friend. Number one best, greatest friend of all time. We race yachts. We trade mistresses. I call him "Trump Card." He calls me "Cold Beer." That said, the guy is a boob. He looks like  a tangelo had sex with an old dishrag. And I can say that because I love this man. And to honor the memory of Trump mattering, it is more important than ever that tonight I reannounce my Stephen Colbert's South Carolina Serious Classy Republican Debate.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/14/colbert_sounds_off_on_trump_debate_withdrawal/feed/ 1 Colbert apes Trump, announces his own debate http://www.salon.com/2011/12/07/colbert_apes_trump_announces_his_own_debate/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/07/colbert_apes_trump_announces_his_own_debate/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10299014 With less than a month until the Iowa caucuses, the race for the Republican nomination is finally headed to the voting booth, where rank-and-file party members will make the choice, presumably between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. The  stakes never higher, serious Republicans no doubt hoped that the theatrics that characterized the early stretches of the nominating process would recede into the background. Unfortunately for them, Donald Trump has gotten himself a debate.

Predictably, establishment conservatives like George Will and Karl Rove are incensed at the prospect of a Trump-moderated debate. Stephen Colbert, meanwhile, has his own bone to pick with the hotel tycoon, and last night he dusted off his best Donald impression to do it:

The point is: Forget Donald Trump. He's history, rolled in "forget him," smothered in a yesterday sauce. Tomorrow is about me, the most famous man in the history of South Carolina. The GOP wants a serious debate? They deserve it. Bar none, they're the best party in the world. That includes space. That is why, as of this moment, I am officially announcing my own Republican debate: Stephen Colbert's Serious, Classy, South Carolina Republican Debate. I am doing this.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/07/colbert_apes_trump_announces_his_own_debate/feed/ 0 Military veterans: The real 1 percent? http://www.salon.com/2011/11/18/military_veterans_the_real_1_percent/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/18/military_veterans_the_real_1_percent/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:38:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10233183 Another day gone by, and the congressional supercommittee is no closer to reaching a compromise on deficit reduction mandated by this summer's debt ceiling agreement. There's some good news, though. Faced with the prospect of automatic cuts to both domestic discretionary and defense spending, leaders in Congress have finally come together to agree on a budget item that afford to be slashed: veterans' health benefits.

Wait, seriously?

It's true. As Stephen Colbert pointed out on his show last night, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees recently sent a joint letter to the supercommittee recommending cuts to health benefits for the 1 percent of Americans who have served in the military. (Such benefits would be exempted from the automatic cuts triggered in the event of the supercommittee's failure.) "We believe no constituency better understands the challenge America faces, and no constituency is better suited to, again, lead by example by putting the country first," read the letter. Well, as long as there are no defense cuts!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/18/military_veterans_the_real_1_percent/feed/ 12 Colbert mocks media reports of Berkeley violence http://www.salon.com/2011/11/11/colbert_mocks_media_reports_of_berkeley_violence/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/11/colbert_mocks_media_reports_of_berkeley_violence/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:49:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10197121 Police at the University of California, Berkeley, were caught on camera Wednesday striking protesters with their batons during what had been theretofore been a peaceful standoff -- an act of aggression that struck many as unnecessary and unacceptable. However, as Stephen Colbert pointed out on his show last night, you might not have known all that from reading some of the news reports of the incident. While Salon's Justin Elliott described the moment as one of the "most extreme incidents of police violence during the Occupy movement," others painted a significantly tamer picture of events. The Associated Press, for example, inaccurately described the officers' use of batons as "nudging."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/11/colbert_mocks_media_reports_of_berkeley_violence/feed/ 12 Colbert takes on Michigan bullying law http://www.salon.com/2011/11/10/colbert_takes_on_michigan_bullying_law/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/10/colbert_takes_on_michigan_bullying_law/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:58:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10189675 Tuesday was, by and large, a successful day for progressive causes. That doesn't mean it was without it's setbacks, though. In Michigan, the State Senate passed a new anti-bullying bill-- Matt's Safe School Law, named after a gay teen who committed suicide following bullying in 2002 -- that might have marked an important moment for Michigan education. Ultimately, however, conservative groups successfully lobbied to write into the bill an exemption for bullying done out of "sincerely held religious belief[s] or moral conviction[s]" -- in effect providing legal language to justify the very sort of behavior the law was intended to prevent in the first place.

On his program last night, Stephen Colbert dissected the logic of the Senate Republicans who passed the legislation. As it turns out, "bullying is just fine as long as you get a permission slip from God."

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/10/colbert_takes_on_michigan_bullying_law/feed/ 4 Colbert sticks with, then sours on Herman Cain http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/colbert_sticks_with_then_sours_on_herman_cain/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/colbert_sticks_with_then_sours_on_herman_cain/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10183832 Many have marveled at Herman Cain's resilience this past week and a half. Even facing a series of sexual harassment accusations, the Republican hopeful surged to his single strongest day of fundraising ever last week, and continued to best Mitt Romney in national polls. Stephen Colbert did his best to illustrate the mindset of a typical Cain supporter on his show last night -- and to highlight the source of the candidate's durability. More importantly, though, Colbert also demonstrated how Sharon Bialek's specific, unsettling allegations could lose Cain all of his momentum, and ultimately sink his campaign.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/colbert_sticks_with_then_sours_on_herman_cain/feed/ 5 Jon Huntsman: The “Colbert” conservative http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/jon_huntsman_the_colbert_conservative/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/jon_huntsman_the_colbert_conservative/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10144095 [UPDATED BELOW]

Republican hopeful Jon Huntsman was on "The Colbert Report" last night, reinforcing his status as the most reasonable -- and likely unelectable -- politician in the GOP field. Over the course of the interview, Huntsman seemed comfortable and well spoken  as he addressed a number of issues that have hounded him on the campaign trail, including his ambassadorship in China, his Mormon faith, and his remarkably moderate politics. More notable, though, might have been the one thing Huntsman didn't do during his conversation with Colbert -- disparage his former boss, Barack Obama.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/jon_huntsman_the_colbert_conservative/feed/ 2 Colbert explains Herman Cain’s contradictions http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/colbert_explains_herman_cains_contraditions/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/colbert_explains_herman_cains_contraditions/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10129923 Republican hopeful Herman Cain believes that the unemployed have nobody but themselves to blame for their joblessness. Herman Cain also believes they should blame Barack Obama. While this all might seem like a not-particularly-graceful form of rhetorical jiujitsu, that doesn't mean it has to. Stephen Colbert spent a portion of his program last night explaining exactly how you can reconcile two seemingly contradictory arguments. (Hint: It helps if you say everything with a straight face, and don't focus too much on the words coming out of your mouth.)

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Indecision 2012 - Herman Cain Canes the Unemployed
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/colbert_explains_herman_cains_contraditions/feed/ 2 Stephen Colbert solves America’s deficit problem http://www.salon.com/2011/09/21/morning_clip_10/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/21/morning_clip_10/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:22:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/21/morning_clip As President Obama digs in for a new battle with congressional Republicans -- this time over tax hikes on the wealthy -- the topic of deficit reduction rears its ugly head yet again. Stephen Colbert tackled that very subject on his show last night, and touched on a revenue enhancement strategy that everyone else had somehow overlooked:

We must also tax everyone who's found the ultimate loophole in our income tax code: Having no income. Just because you're one of the 16.6 million unemployed Americans doesn't mean you can't pull your weight. That's why god gave you two kidneys.

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Death and Taxes
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/21/morning_clip_10/feed/ 1 Ron Paul gets endorsement — from drunk driver http://www.salon.com/2011/09/14/ron_paul_4/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/14/ron_paul_4/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/14/ron_paul Whether or not Ron Paul's gotten short shrift from the mainstream media, it's hard to deny his campaign suffers from a lack of oomph. While frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are collecting the support of heavy hitters, like Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal, Paul still hadn't scored any major endorsement ... until now.

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Ron Paul 2012
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/14/ron_paul_4/feed/ 3 Does “The Daily Show” still have a woman problem? http://www.salon.com/2011/09/09/art_gallery_explains_daily_show_colbert_lack_of_women/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/09/art_gallery_explains_daily_show_colbert_lack_of_women/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/09/09/art_gallery_explains_daily_show_colbert_lack_of_women "What Does An Important Person Look Like?" That's the question Jennifer Dalton poses in her new "Cool Guys Like You" exhibition, opening Friday at New York's Winkleman Gallery. And in case you hadn't guessed, the answer is: a dude.

As Dalton explains in her statement about the installation, an open letter to talk show hosts "Bill/Brian/Charlie/Jon/Leonard/Rachel/Stephen/Terry": "When I looked closely at whom you interview -- the people you collectively decide are the most important of the moment -- I was very surprised…. In 2010, the most lopsided show among you featured only 17.5% female guests. The most balanced among you still only featured 34% female guests…. If I may be so bold, WTF?"

To illustrate her point about the demographics of shows like "Fresh Air," "The Colbert Report," "Charlie Rose" and others, Dalton lined up a sampling of screenshots of "Daily Show" guests and put the men in gold frames and the women in silver ones. Unsurprisingly, there's not a lot of silver on the walls.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/09/art_gallery_explains_daily_show_colbert_lack_of_women/feed/ 37 Pawlenty tells Colbert why he left the race http://www.salon.com/2011/09/07/colbert_pawlenty/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/07/colbert_pawlenty/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:08:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/07/colbert_pawlenty When Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the Republican nomination contest last month, there was much hand-wringing over what he might have done differently to capture the imagination of voters. The former Minnesota governor explained on "The Colbert Report" last night that the entertainment factor wasn't long on him -- and that he even considered "shooting sparks up [his] butt" if it meant making headway in the polls. 

In the end though, he explained, he ran out of money and finished behind both Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul in the Ames Straw Poll -- and that's simply just too much  poor fortune for any one campaign to bear.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/07/colbert_pawlenty/feed/ 10 Colbert gets some tips from a spin doctor http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/colbert_luntz/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/colbert_luntz/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/08/17/colbert_luntz Stephen Colbert might have lost his Super PAC treasurer to the Rick Perry campaign, but he marches on regardless. On his show last night, the Comedy Central host unveiled a word cloud -- filled with submissions from more than 50,000 people -- representing the key campaign issues of his TV-viewing constituency. In order to distill those priorities into the perfect political ad, Colbert brought on GOP political operative Frank Luntz. Among the other lessons of the evening: how to appear (though not necessarily be) thoughtful and sympathetic.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/colbert_luntz/feed/ 8 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 Colbert dings first GOP debate http://www.salon.com/2011/05/06/gop_debate_colbert/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/06/gop_debate_colbert/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 12:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/05/06/gop_debate_colbert On his Thursday show, Stephen Colbert mocked the first GOP presidential candidate debate, which took place in South Carolina last night with almost no big name contenders present.

In other GOP-related comedy, Colbert draws our attention to some of Donald Trump's stranger comments of the week, such as comparing gay marriage to long golf clubs (both, according to The Donald, are unnatural).

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Inaugural Republican Presidential Debate & Donald Trump's Wisdom
www.colbertnation.com
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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/06/gop_debate_colbert/feed/ 4