University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The ""truthiness"" behind American politics: a look at the image of Stephen Colbert as a journalist through the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential elections

(USC Thesis Other)

The ""truthiness"" behind American politics: a look at the image of Stephen Colbert as a journalist through the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential elections

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content Katz

1

The “Truthiness” Behind American Politics: A Look at the Image of Stephen Colbert
as a Journalist Through the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Presidential Elections

By Michael Katz

IJPC Master’s thesis
Joe Saltzman
May 2013

Katz
2

Table
of
Contents

Introduction

3

Literature
Review

5

Methodology

8

The
Rising
Popularity
of
“Fake
Newscasts”

10

Defining
“Fake
News”

11

The
Image
of
the
Conservative
News
Commentator

13

Biography
—
Colbert
the
Man
and
Colbert
the
Persona

16

The
Persona,
Part
1:
Ultra
Conservative

18

The
Persona,
Part
2:
Truthiness
and
Its
Meaning

25

The
Persona,
Part
3:
Sends
Explicit/Implicit
Messages

32

The
Persona
Compared
to
the
Cast
of
That
Was
the
Week
that
Was

36

The
Persona
Compared
to
Ron
Burgundy

41

The
Persona
Compared
to
Cast
of
Weekend
Update

44

Conclusion

48

Bibliography

57

Appendix

60

Katz

3

Introduction

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, from The Colbert Report and The Daily Show,
are two of the most recognizable faces in television news. Neither works for CNN, FOX,
MSNBC, NBC, CBS, or any other network newscasts. Neither works for any sort of news
network. Both work for Comedy Central.
They are simultaneously critics of the news (making fun of the way it works and
its typical methods of reporting) and conveyors of the news, despite the fact that they lie
“outside of journalistic conventions.”
i
Whether it be a story about a scandal enveloping a
politician or a crisis somewhere in the world, Stewart and Colbert, while critiquing
journalism and its sometimes biased presenters, perform journalism as they critique it,
which puts them in an interesting position. They are not held to the same standards as
Wolf Blitzer, Brian Williams, Katie Couric or Glenn Beck because they are comedians,
not names on network news stations.
According to Rolling Stone, “Colbert and Stewart…[are] the ‘most trusted names’
in news, fake or otherwise.
ii
Though Stewart and Colbert are admittedly comics, the
number of viewers they collect nightly indicates that there is something deeper than
comedy at the center of their programs.
iii
While they are not journalists, they do serve a
journalistic function.
iv

The two have very different ways of conveying the news, however. Stewart serves
more as a facilitator of the news, an anchor who receives information, and satirizes news
coverage by pointing out its faults (often by way of mocking network news clips). As Jon
Stewart explained to Joe Hale Cuthbirth,
Katz
4

“When you saw that on network news and didn’t believe how the network
handled it, or that it was actually happening, you weren’t alone. You were right to
think ‘What the Hell?’ But I saw it too, and so did everyone else who watches this
show, and that is why we are talking about it here tonight.”
v

As Cuthbirth said in Satire as Journalism: The Daily Show and American Politics at the
Turn of the Twenty-First Century, part of the reason that Stewart has such an impact on
viewers is because he shows emotion in his delivery of the “news” whereas traditional
anchors are “dispassionate” in their methods
vi
.
Colbert, on the other hand, is not a facilitator. Rather, he presents a conservative
persona and offers a more intimate relationship with the news that he presents. As a
journalist Colbert, simply put, is a political commentator. He says things to get a reaction
from his audience in an attempt to mock conservative talk shows, which are based in
opinion rather than factual evidence.
vii
The Stephen Colbert in “real life” is far different
from the Stephen Colbert on television
viii
. The “journalist Colbert” is not a real person.
He is a character he created as his performance voice. As he describes his two selves:
We share the same name. But he says things I don’t mean with a straight face. On
the street, I think people know the difference. But I’m not sure, when people ask
me to go someplace, which one they’ve asked.
ix

While Colbert has received the majority of his recognition as the host of The Colbert
Report, he began as a correspondent on Stewart’s program. While most information and
research has been done on Colbert’s own show, the persona was born on The Daily Show.
As is the case on his own program, Colbert in The Daily Show sends mixed messages to
viewers and, consequently, gives two images as a journalist: one as a staunch
conservative and one as a liberal who mocks conservatives through his ruthless
“journalistic” techniques.
x

Katz

5

Literature Review

At present, scholars continue to study Colbert’s persona and the way it impacts
present-day society. The first major study used was Jody C. Baumgartner and Jonathan
Morris’s One ‘Nation’ Under Stephen? The Effects of The Colbert Report on American
Youth. Baumgartner and Morris focus on the rationale and logic behind Colbert’s comedy
and presentation of the news, and about why it is so appealing to his young audience.
Explained in the text are the implicit and explicit messages that Colbert uses and how
they affect viewers, essentially confusing some and leaving others to laugh at the irony
behind the jokes.
xi

Also crucial to this research is The Role of Journalist and the Performance of
Journalism: Ethical Lessons From “Fake” News (Seriously) by Sandra Borden and Chad
Tew. Borden and Tew examine the role of the traditional journalist, defining it essentially
as a barrier between the audience and news facts. Colbert and Stewart work outside the
realm of traditional journalism because they do not put themselves in a position of power
over their audience in the way that traditional newscasters do. Rather than telling an
audience what they should know and there being no dialogue between broadcaster and
audience, Colbert and Stewart interact with the audience and explore the news being
discussed in a non-condescending manner. The authors suggest that such a connection is
one of the key reasons satire news has become preferable for many people: Viewers do
not feel as if they are being talked down to, which does not alienate them from the
broadcaster.
xii

Katz
6

In Bakhtin, Colbert, and the Center of Discourse: Is There No ‘Truthiness’ in
Humor? Priscilla Marie Meddaugh discusses the idea of “carnival” to be the complete
turning on its head of traditional news. Meddaugh calls Colbert an impersonator of real
news commentary personalities, such as Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. Meddaugh also
goes in depth behind the idea of “truthiness,” defining it as reality as being that which we
want it to be, a tactic that Colbert’s persona has adopted as his main form of political
persuasion. Subsequently, Meddaugh describes Colbert’s use of truthiness and how it
serves as the basis of his work and his persona, as his persona’s outlandishness comes
from the idea that truthiness, regardless of actual truths, validates all.
xiii

Biographical information about Colbert is in short supply. His page at
biography.com gives his birthday as May 13, 1964. Adam Sternbergh’s article in New
York Magazine titled “Stephen Colbert Has America by the Ballots” includes an
interview with Colbert and discusses his rise and his take on the television persona he
created. Sternbergh also includes facts about his biography and his persona’s, which,
coincidentally, are quite different. Sternbergh also outlines the persona’s conservative
mindset and Colbert’s insistence of not breaking character while in his role.
xiv

An article featured in The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impact of
Fake News titled “I Am Mainstream Media (and So Can You!)” by Robert Tally, Jr.
discusses the aspects behind fake news and why it is an “absolutely authentic” satire of
real news show despite the fact that it is presented as a comedy. Tally writes that “The
Daily Show and The Colbert Report … explicitly make the critique of the mainstream
media their principal aim,”
xv
meaning that it fulfills its purpose: it fully parodies the
mainstream news, including news and news talk shows.
Katz

7

Thomas Hanitzsch’s Deconstructing Journalism Culture: Toward a Universal
Theory examines the power structure behind traditional journalism and its role as being
“objective.”
xvi
Emily Nerland’s paper about the image of Ron Burgundy in the movie
Anchorman
xvii
and Joe Saltzman’s paper Analyzing the Images of the Journalist in
Popular Culture: a Unique Method of Studying the Public’s Perception of its Journalists
and the News Media
xviii
serve as comparisons to Colbert’s comedy. Jennifer Phillips, in
Humour, political satire and ironic tension between the “real” and the “fictional”
Stephen Colbert, outlines the difference in the actual Colbert and the Colbert that viewers
have come to know and love.
xix
The real Colbert is balanced politically, while the persona
is a right-wing, condescending personality who assumes that his beliefs are facts while
the real Colbert does not.
xx

Also examined was a satire news show from the 1960s called That Was the Week
That Was. An article from The Telegraph provided brief information, as was a page from
IMDb to gather basic facts about the program. Also examined were three articles that
talked about the conservative television analyst, which was used in comparison to the
image Colbert displays. The sources were an entry from Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia
of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, an article from the Dallas Morning News titled
“Conservative Commentators Twisting Dial to the Right”, and an editorial from the
Charleston Gazette titled “Cheerleaders Conservative Commentators.” The sources
outlined the biases conservative news hosts generally displays and give insight into what
Colbert aims to parody.

Katz
8

Methodology

This paper will investigate the similarities between Colbert’s persona as a
conservative television host and his persona as a correspondent while discovering what
lies at the core of the persona itself. I felt that Colbert’s role during the coverage of the
presidential elections most clearly shows the image of his persona throughout the years
and provides an overall look at him that can be applied to Colbert at anytime during his
“journalistic” career. This persona is right-winged and serious and, by the definition of
satirical news, intentionally confusing.
This paper will look at Colbert’s work on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
during presidential election coverage. Specifically, it will examine Colbert’s work during
the 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 presidential elections, known as Indecision
2000/2004/2008 on The Daily Show and holding no special title in 2012 on The Colbert
Report, though Stewart titled it Democalypse 2012 on his program.
There has been little written about Colbert’s time as a correspondent on The Daily
Show, as his fame took off when The Colbert Report aired in 2005. Therefore, the
majority of the research dealing with Colbert was done after his tenure on The Daily
Show came to an end. This paper will examine the image of Colbert from his own show
and put it into the context of his time on The Daily Show the paper will also explore the
slight differences between Colbert’s persona on each show. The Indecision pieces display
and overly conservative news commentator and his reactions during a time of political
tension, and thus make his transition from reporter to host of The Colbert Report
seamless.
Katz

9

Selected for study were segments from Indecision and Democalypse that feature
Colbert either as a reporter on the scene or in the studio with Stewart. The episodes were
featured in the Indecision 2004 DVD boxed set, which contained three discs featuring
skits from the year leading up to and during the election. The collection includes scenes
with him at the political conventions, interviews with voters and candidates, and quarrels
with his liberal counterpart, correspondent Jon Stewart. Indecision 2000 segments show
his persona at its most conservative. Included are scenes where he verbally spars with
liberal correspondent Steve Carell. He speaks about the infamous 2000 recount in the
state of Florida, and about President George W. Bush in these dialogues.
The 2008 election coverage creates a different scenario, as The Colbert Report
was its own show and had gained a loyal following. Subsequently, the coverage was split
between both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. To my knowledge, the coverage
was not released on a DVD, so the clips used were found online in archives. However,
moments I chose are from actual election night coverage itself, as it includes both him
and Stewart, who serves as his semi-liberal foil; such a format resembles earlier election
coverage on The Daily Show.
This paper features Colbert’s backing of 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney, debate coverage between Romney and President Barack Obama and,
finally, Colbert’s despair when Romney loses. The majority of the clips are from election
night itself (as in 2008), but a few are from The Colbert Report, as Colbert’s soliloquys
tend to bring out his conservative nature consistent with his overall image.

Katz
10

The Rising Popularity of “Fake Newscasts”

In May 2011, The Daily Show averaged 2.3 million viewers per day, while FOX
News, as a whole, averaged 1.85 million viewers a day (all programs included).
xxi
This
made it the highest rated late-night talk show on television
xxii
Meanwhile, The Colbert
Report averaged 1.6 million viewers daily during the same month. The next closest late-
night television show was Conan on NBC, which had more than half a million fewer
viewers per night.
xxiii
In addition, Stewart’s show has more than 800,000 visits to its
website monthly; the next closest is Colbert’s, with basically half of The Daily Show’s
traffic.
The Indecision 2008: Prelude to a Recount special, which featured The Daily
Show and the Colbert Report, recorded 3.2 million total views, making it the most widely
watched political special in the history of Comedy Central.
xxiv
Meanwhile, though The
Daily Show averaged 1.2 million viewers a night, its coverage of the 2004 presidential
election is what gained Stewart and Colbert notoriety.
xxv
The show’s executive producer,
Ben Karlin, has said that, “the 2004 election is what got [the show] to these heights in
the first place. If the 2000 race put The Daily Show on people’s radar, Stewart and
company’s take on the year’s events … put the show on people’s sonar.”
xxvi
The
numbers support Karlin’s assertion. While the show had 1.2 million viewers in 2004, the
show had around 1.5 million in 2008 and now has 2.3 million, due in large part to
presidential coverage
xxvii

The structure of each episode has generally stayed the same. The show begins
with Stewart’s monologue and then features a segment where correspondents report a
Katz

11

story, either by interviewing someone or by conversing with Stewart. In the last section,
Stewart interviews a guest speaker.
xxviii
While on The Daily Show, Colbert was featured
in the middle section of the show. Since Stewart took over the show in 1999
xxix
from
Craig Kilborn, this structure has, for the most part, been strictly followed. The only
change over the years has been Stewart’s guests moving from entertainers to politicians.
In 1999-2000, nearly 94 percent of the guests were considered entertainers. By 2004-
2005, the percentage of entertainers as guests had dropped to just under 40 percent, while
politicians and pundits made up more than 58 percent of the guests.
xxx

The show has clearly grown more politically based in nature over the years, and
2004 appears to have been the turning point. To examine Colbert’s journalistic persona, a
look at specific episodes of the Indecision series in 2000 and 2004 give the clearest
picture of the persona as an interviewer and where his loyalties lie.
An episode of The Colbert Report follows a similar structure to that of Stewart’s
program. Colbert begins with a monologue and then dives into the biggest news stories
and provides his slant on them. A guest then comes on the show and often spars with
Colbert, as the guests are often times liberal, similar to the way Bill O’Reilly battles with
his guests.
xxxi

Defining “Fake News”

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have been revolutionary in getting young
adults interested in politics.
xxxii
“Fake news” along the lines of what Meddaugh calls
“infotainment” brings entertainment into the realm of news and carefully chooses what it
Katz
12

decides to cover so as to get the best reaction.
xxxiii
One reason “fake news” has become
so popular is because it is easily and readily accessible to the general public. One need
not be incredibly sophisticated in order to grasp the meaning of Colbert or Stewart. At the
same time, Meddaugh believes that audiences do not feel overwhelmed by Colbert’s or
Stewart’s shows whereas they might feel overwhelmed by network, national or local
news because it has the reputation as being for those with “high intellect,” scaring off
those who genuinely want to learn.
xxxiv

Meddaugh writes that fake news, “Positions news parody as agent for ordinary
people to observe and acknowledge the success and failures of political procedures that
govern their personal and public lives.”
xxxv
Because it is easy to understand, it also
becomes a way for viewers to become “insiders,” as if they are a part of the news, as if
they actually have a role in the news because they are able to access it so easily.
xxxvi

Borden and Tew believe that fake news also serves as a way to criticize the way that the
mainstream media are currently run.
xxxvii
The normal expectation for network news and
its audience is one of simple listening. When the journalist speaks, the audience is
supposed to listen and understand. However, Colbert and Stewart have a different way of
doing things. Instead of presenting news objectively and dispassionately, Colbert and
Stewart engage the audience in a dialogue: One is not expected to listen to the hosts
verbatim; instead, the audience is expected to laugh at the jokes and come to an
individual decision about the facts.
xxxviii
As Borden and Tew write,
Stewart effectively relates to his audience [by letting] people know he feels what
they feel. He often opens up to them. The best example of this was his first post-
9/11 appearance when he had to ease the audience back into comedy. He talked
about his own discomfort at performing comedy. He broke down emotionally
before his audience … In his speech, he framed himself and his audience as one.
Katz

13

The egalitarian aspects of ‘fake’ news serves to teach audiences that they have a
stake in journalistic integrity.

“Fake news” is able to relate to its audience because it is allowed opinions that
conventional broadcast news is not allowed. A CNN anchor cannot give his or her
thoughts or feelings about a situation. However, Stewart and Colbert can, and are thus
beloved by fans because they seem like real people.
xxxix

As it serves as an alternative to traditional news, “fake news” also serves as a
critique of that news. It does not regard news as being a power struggle between
journalist and audience. Instead, it breaks down barriers and makes the news accessible.
xl

In this way, it critiques the news and its traditional structure. At the same time, the
methods that Colbert uses personally, such as an inability to see two sides of an issue (a
la traditional conservative hosts) parodies the way news talk shows are being broadcast,
taking the biases to an extreme. “Fake news,” however, is far different from traditional
news, as Colbert and Stewart parody and critique in the process of delivering the facts.
xli

The Image of the Conservative News Commentator

While Colbert is a mock journalist, he specifically mocks the conservative
political analyst and talk show host. Whereas Stewart parodies the traditional newsroom
and the news anchor, Colbert aims to parody the inherently slanted political
commentator. Traditionally, the conservative newsman considers him or herself
underrepresented in traditional media.
xlii
"From the standpoint of commentators, there are
many more conservatives than liberals," L. Bozell Brent, head of the conservative Media
Research Center, told The Dallas Morning News. "And that's because liberal
Katz
14

commentators call themselves reporters and anchors." Bozell continued by saying that
liberals, “[have] morning news shows, evening newscasts and `objective' reporters
promoting an agenda."
xliii
In turn, it is the job of the conservative commentator to level
the playing field and present the other side of things.
The bias of conservative news has been well documented. Former Fox News
producer Charles Reina released a memo in 2003, during the time of the war with Iraq.
The war was spearheaded by Republican President George W. Bush after the September
11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. The memo specifically told Fox workers,
“to bend coverage to serve the White House agenda.”
xliv
The memo allegedly spoke of
the need to get rid of violent coverage of the war, as it was not in the best interests of the
Republican party. “The memo warned us that anti-war protesters would be 'whining'
about U.S. bombs killing Iraqi civilians, and suggested they could tell that to the families
of American soldiers dying there. Editing copy that morning, I was not surprised when an
eager young producer killed a correspondent's report on the day's fighting - simply
because it included a brief shot of children in an Iraqi hospital."
xlv

Compared to other network newscasts, the conservative news telecast features a
slant towards a specific agenda. Reina, who worked for ABC before working for Fox
News, laid it out as such:
I'd never worked in a newsroom like that. Never. At ABC, for example, I never
knew what management or my bosses' political views were, much less felt
pressure from them to make things come out a certain way. I'm talking about
news bias, and I never experienced it there. At CBS or the AP, if a word got in
that suggested bias - liberal or conservative - it was taken out. At Fox, it was all
about viewpoint. I'm not talking about the nighttime personalities. I'm talking
about the news report.
xlvi

Katz

15

Much of what Fox News produces is commentary rather than news, and according to
Reina, even the news is slanted towards specific opinion. The hallmark of conservative
news, however, is the hosts of its shows. In terms of the conservative commentator
specifically, the clearest image is that of Bill O’Reilly, whom Colbert models his persona
after.
In Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices O’Reilly is
self-described as a “culture warrior.”
xlvii
Culture Wars mentions that many have
criticized O’Reilly for inventing his own truths and not backing up his statements with
actual proof.
xlviii
“Critics cry foul over O’Reilly’s lack of concrete evidence at times,
citing his presentation of blatantly untrue information,” the article reads. “The media
watch group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) calls O’Reilly the ‘most biased
name in news,’ and Media Matters named him its ‘Misinformer of the Year’ in 2004”
xlix

The popular Fox News host is also infamous for cutting off guests when they don’t agree
with him and for being confrontational when dissenters address him.
l

Opinionated and non-factual, the conservative news commentator’s job is not to
present unbiased news. Instead, his or her job is to deliver opinion so as to sway viewers.
The host firmly believes what he or she is saying. Even if facts serve as evidence to the
contrary discourse, the conservative commentator is steadfast in what he or she believes
in.

Katz
16

Biography — Colbert the Man and Colbert the Persona

To talk about Stephen Colbert as a conservative persona, one must first learn
about the real Stephen Colbert. Colbert was born on May 13, 1964 in Washington, D.C.
He grew up in South Carolina and graduated from Northwestern University in 1986.
li
His
life was not without conflict, however. When Colbert was ten, his father and brother were
killed in a plane crash. Colbert also faced the challenge of being a Southerner attempting
to make his way into mainstream television. He was forced to “drop” his Southern accent,
as the perception existed (and still does to an extent) that people with Southern accents
were inferior in intelligence.
lii

Colbert acted in improvisation groups in Illinois before joining Strangers With
Candy on Comedy Central in 1995. The Daily Show With John Stewart premiered in
1997, with Colbert playing one of the original correspondents. He stayed on the show
until 2005, when he was given The Colbert Report and reached national fame, which
includes speaking at the President’s Correspondent’s Dinner in 2006.
liii
Colbert also has
written a book, titled I Am America (and So Can You!) from the contrived perspective of
his conservative persona.
liv

Colbert, the person, is intelligent, quick on his feet, and very well informed.
Colbert’s persona, however, is quite different, and has different origins. His persona
considers itself incredibly right wing, “along the lines of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,
or especially Bill O’Reilly.”
lv
Part of what makes Colbert’s character so confusing is the
fact that the actual man and his character share his real name, as all the correspondents on
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report use their real names. However, unlike the other
Katz

17

characters, Colbert’s persona is polarizing in terms of political beliefs. Robert Tally, Jr.
writes that Colbert’s character in some aspects shares the same biography as the actual
man, such as the fact that both consider themselves Roman Catholics. However, while the
actual Stephen Colbert attended Northwestern and appeared on other Comedy Central
shows, his persona is said to have been on North Carolina television in the 1980s
lvi

Colbert (the persona and the person) made headlines in 2006 at the President’s
Correspondents dinner when he delivered a speech not as Colbert the person, but as his
persona.
lvii
The “politically neutral” Jon Stewart claims that, “The point of view of [The
Daily Show] is we’re passionately opposed to bullshit.” Colbert’s persona, on the other
hand, “need not oppose bullshit; he can promote bullshit, make sure everyone knows that
it is bullshit, and insist that such bullshit is a core foundation of conservative political
philosophy.”
lviii

In performing as his persona on such a critical stage, the public learned that the
persona had grown beyond Stephen Colbert himself and was very influential. Also
evident was the fact that despite being a comic and never claiming to be anything else,
Colbert’s persona was quickly being recognized as a pseudo-journalist.
lix

Those watching Colbert’s speech on television were outraged because it was
becoming difficult to tell the difference between Colbert and other outspoken news
anchors.
lx
Because Colbert is a satire of O’Reilly and other right-wing analysts and
because Colbert delivers actual news (as opposed to pure comedy), it has become hard to
separate Colbert from real journalists. Tally cites critics Jonathan Grey, Jeffrey Jones,
and Ethan Thompson as saying that
Consigned to basic or pay cable channels, satire has nevertheless frequently
commanded public attention and conversation more convincingly than shows with
Katz
18

ten times the broadcast audience … Good satire has a remarkable power to
encapsulate public sentiment … satire can energize culture, engage public
political discussion, and [draw] citizens enthusiastically into the realm of the
political with deft and dazzling ease.
lxi

Colbert’s persona also has become a polarizing figure because of its following and
growing popularity in the mainstream, as have The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

The Persona, Part 1: Ultra Conservative

Colbert has always refused to deliver the news from a neutral perspective; he has
always been extremely conservative. It has been his trademark since becoming a
television personality, even before he was a mock commentator. Consequently, he has
always asked ridiculous questions and had made the strange statements for which he has
become well known. Part of this is because his persona is in fact a parody of Glenn Beck,
O’Reilly, and other conservative political analysts who speak as if they have complete
command of knowledge. Such knowledge need not be unbiased.
lxii

P.M. Meddaugh, author of Bakhtin, Colbert, and the Center of Discourse, writes
that, “Colbert both simulates and condemns O’Reilly’s zealous suspicious of all things
non-American. His pseudo right-wing, manic persona parallels O’Reilly’s to
exaggeration, a reflection one might observe in a fun house mirror.”
lxiii
Meddaugh also
notes that Colbert’s persona “challenges authoritative claims to the ‘center’ of discourse,”
and does not require his news and political interpretations to be non-biased because he is
part of “fake news” and is not held to the same standards.
lxiv

He is always unwavering in what he says; no one can sway him from his conservative
preconceived notions. Because he is the “right wing” correspondent and political
Katz

19

commentator, Colbert need not remain neutral in what he says and need not be afraid to
say utterly ridiculous things and make strange claims. In The Colbert Report, Colbert
takes popular personalities and common facts and uses them to create “the absurd” by
infusing them with his own supposed right-wing point of view.
lxv
In no place is this idea
of merging familiar faces and concepts more apparent than in his interviews in Indecision
2004, as a correspondent on The Daily Show and in the 2008 and 2012 elections. It is in
these segments that we learn about Colbert the conservative, albeit in two separate stages.
During the 2004 elections, Stewart’s correspondents were sent to interview
candidates and to attend party conventions. As a correspondent, Colbert was featured in a
segment of interviews titled “Stephen Colbert’s: Interviews I Could Get.” In an interview
with Democratic presidential hopeful Rev. Al Sharpton, Colbert demonstrated right-wing
bias from the beginning. At one point, Sharpton asserted that his selling point was his
desire to help those who are voiceless. Colbert, evidently not sold, calls this a “tactical
campaign mistake” and retorts with, “The voiced and the franchised [whom Sharpton
does not believe need help] have a lot more money,” suggesting that theirs are the votes
to get rather than votes from the impoverished.
lxvi
Colbert also intentionally crosses color
lines by using the term “urban streets” out of context and plays the race card on Sharpton,
a move that Sharpton was long suspected of doing himself during his campaign.
lxvii

Colbert asks Sharpton if his strategy is to “stick it to the man,” saying he got the
phrase from the “urban streets.” Sharpton claims that he is not trying to get back at
anyone or to “stick it to the man,” and Colbert asks, “not even the man?” in an attempt to
get a response out of Sharpton. The last part of the interview consists of Colbert asking
Sharpton to reverse roles and sell his candidacy to Colbert (who is acting as Sharpton).
Katz
20

Sharpton, as Colbert, states that he is the best candidate, and Colbert responds by saying,
“You’re going to have to back that up, because you aren’t persuading you.”
lxviii

While Colbert’s “Bill O’Reilly” personality is not in full form, it is clear that
Colbert has an agenda which is clearly conservative and that he is trying his best to
confuse Sharpton and play off his statements in order to make him look dumb. As has
always been his typical strategy, Colbert uses what his interviewee says against him or
her in order to put him/her in uncomfortable situations. It is not reckless to assume that
Colbert’s propensity for asking strange questions stems from his right-wing persona that
knows nothing of the supposed need for neutral news reporting. Just as Colbert the
commentator does not need all the facts to ask questions and needs not think things
through, the Daily Show correspondent Colbert sees no reason to have all the facts and
can act on his “conservative instincts” in order to make his subject look bad.
Another Colbert segment in Indecision 2004 is titled “Minority Retort.” In it,
Colbert is sent out to find Democratic minority voters to see how they feel about the
upcoming election. This segment plays off the Colbert persona’s fearless conservative
background.. In the mold of O’Reilly, he says what is on his mind and is not afraid to
offend or cross boundaries: The conservative commentator’s trademark.
Colbert begins by walking up to an African-American woman and asking her,
“You’re black, right?” essentially setting the stage for race and ethnicity to be a major
topic, and thus making it within his limits as a conservative news persona.
lxix
He then
looks for a Native American, and when he finds a person who meets the description, he
quickly asks, “[Are you] Ghandi or Sitting Bull,” distinguishing between Eastern and
Katz

21

Western Indians in the crudest way possible.
lxx
However, because of his persona, he can
get away with it.
Colbert proceeds to put all of the minority voters in one room in an
audience/panel type of setting. He refers to the individuals by their labels when
addressing them as “Jew,” “Lesbian,” and “Sitting Bull.” Colbert asks the Jewish panelist
who he would like to see win the Democratic nomination. He answers by saying John
Kerry, to which Colbert replies, “Kerry would be a mitzvah.”
lxxi
Again, Colbert pushes
the racial and ethnic boundaries accepted by many conservatives to their limit, showing
that he is unafraid of being biased or “unacceptable,” because his right-wing background
supposedly enables him to do so.
The 2008 election coverage provided much of the same conservative-biased
mockery as the previous elections did. This time, though, Colbert proves to be more over
the top, possibly because he has his own and show and the subsequent freedom to be as
outrageous as he wanted. The persona remained the same in terms of ideology; it was
more extreme, though, and sermonic in nature. Rather than being out on assignment as he
previously was, he is an established anchor and political commentator, in the mold of his
“idols” Beck and O’Reilly. Subsequently, he takes on a more authoritative role and is
more likely to condemn liberals than just revel in the Republican party and its ideas.
As a political commentator, he is more powerful. He isn’t just a voice in the
conservative group any longer or just another member of the party. On his own show, he
becomes the voice. Instead of just telling people what he thinks as a correspondent, he
tells people what they should think and why a conservative world is necessary for the
Katz
22

United States to flourish, often disguising his opinions as factual truths in the same
manner that Bill O’Reilly does.
lxxii

Coverage of the 2008 and 2012 elections featured a Colbert more in control and
preachy of his beliefs, perpetuating more extremely Stewart’s idea of, “bullshit [as] a
core foundation of conservative political philosophy,” because he has fully transformed
into a political commentator.
On election night in 2008, Colbert revels in the glory of John McCain’s victories
in some states and is absolutely deflated when he loses others.
lxxiii
When Obama wins
New Hampshire, Colbert says, “Of course, the nickname for New Hampshire is ‘the
granite state’, which is aptly named because after the show tonight I will slam my head
into a kitchen counter
lxxiv
.” Being a staunch conservative personality, he shows his
displeasure with the Republican nominee’s loss in the state and his desire to inflict pain
on himself if the election does not go to the Republicans. When McCain wins Kentucky,
Colbert is visibly elated. His eyes light up, and he makes the joke that McCain’s
nickname is, “the Louisville slugger,” because, “he is 10 percent cork,” a reference to the
famous baseball bats.
lxxv
As a commentator, he is able to tell people why it is good that
the conservatives come out on top, something he was not necessarily able to do as a
correspondent.
Throughout election night, Colbert hold red cards in his hands that supposedly
contain election results. Red is an apt color for the cards, as it is the color of Republican
states shown on political maps. In a fit of rage, Colbert tears those cards to pieces when
Obama wins the state of Connecticut, calling it, “A betrayal of Joe Lieberman,” a former
Democratic vice presidential nominee turned Republican senator from the state. He then
Katz

23

claimed that, “I just don’t understand where the people of Connecticut could have learned
such disloyal behavior,”
lxxvi
Colbert says with dismay. He later chews the cards when
Obama takes Virginia, as he is upset the state was taken by Democrats for the first time
“since Joshua fought the battle of Jericho
lxxvii
.” The biblical allusion is appropriate, as
Virginia has historically gone conservative; Colbert can sense that the election is going to
go to the Democrats, and his persona is not pleased.
In the 2012 election, The Colbert Report features a segment titled “‘Who Will
Replace Obama?’ ‘012.” The implication is not a matter of if Obama will lose but who is
going to beat him. The segment’s introduction is of a cartoon elephant fighting a donkey,
where the elephant (Republican mascot) stabs the donkey (Democratic mascot) in the
stomach, setting the stage perfectly for the conservative messages that are to immediately
follow. After the second presidential debate in October, Obama was generally thought to
have been the victor after losing the previous debate. Colbert, though, makes the claim
that it was, in fact, Romney who was the victor. As a voice of the Republican party, it is
his job to reassure his viewers that everything is going to be okay.
“Romney clearly won,” Colbert tells America. “And folks, I’m not just saying
that. I’m saying that on TV. So, if you’re an undecided voter, who did not watch, just
trust me. It’s 2-0.”
lxxviii
Colbert, sticking to his guns in a Glenn Beck/ Bill O’Reilly sort of
way, is adamant that his conservative presidential nominee is clearly the better candidate
and has proved it once again. He preaches to his audience in a way that only a political
commentator can.
And when Romney ultimately loses the presidential election? Colbert tells us it is
a farce and does not take the news particularly well. “Last night, due to the technicality
Katz
24

called the Constitution, Barack Obama was re-elected president,” he says.
lxxix
In the
episode, Colbert wears a bathrobe, a hat backwards and eats popcorn in despair, much as
a stereotypical portrayal of a woman grieving after being dumped by a boyfriend.
Mocking Obama’s campaign slogan, Colbert yells, “Four more years of ‘Hopey
Change!’”
lxxx
Colbert is okay with sharing traditional conservative views and imposing
them on his viewers, as he feels that they are the “correct views” to hold.
The 2012 election also marks the formation of “Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC.” A
PAC, otherwise known as a political action committee, is
“A popular term for a political committee organized for the purpose of raising and
spending money to elect and defeat candidates. Most PACs represent business,
labor or ideological interests. PACs can give $5,000 to a candidate committee per
election (primary, general or special). They can also give up to $15,000 annually
to any national party committee, and $5,000 annually to any other PAC.”
lxxxi

Colbert, being a conservative personality, supported the Republican candidates.
The slogan for the PAC was “Building a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.” First, he
supported Rick Perry, who he deemed “Rick Parry,” the change in name occurring
because the “A” stood for “America.” He later endorsed Herman Cain, holding an actual
rally called “Rock me like a Herman Cain.”
In the process of raising funds, Colbert sent out a newsletter (29 in total) to those
who wished to subscribe to the cause, asking for donations and for their continuing
support of the PAC. The newsletters had comically serious titles, such as “Colbert Super
PAC Releases Its Greatest Ad Ever, Also Its First” and “Profiles in Undaunted Non-
Coordination.” In the end, he actually ended up raising more than a million dollars.
lxxxii

After the election, he donated the leftover money, which amounted to $773,704.83, to
Hurricane Sandy relief efforts and “campaign finance reform organizations.”
lxxxiii
The
Katz

25

PAC even created commercial advertisements in support of the Republican candidate
Colbert was supporting at the time, taking his conservatism to the extreme. Colbert even
went so far as to attempt to be put on the South Carolina Republican ballot, with his eyes
on being named the “President of the United States of South Carolina.”
lxxxiv
Not only did
his conservative nature appear in full force on television in the 2012 election, but it also
appeared outside the television realm: he raised real funds and took real political action.
When it comes down to it, Colbert’s personality has always been extremely
conservative. It was able to expand and meet its full potential when he became the host of
his own show, however, given the fact that he finally had his own “audience” who he
could preach his truths to.

The Persona, Part 2: Truthiness and Its Meaning

One of Colbert’s hallmarks on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report is never
breaking character (or when he does, it is surprising to everyone — audience, Stewart,
and Colbert included). Part of the reason for this is because his persona is intended to be
incredibly serious. He is not supposed to laugh at himself. His lines, as preposterous as
they sometimes are, are meant to be taken as factual statements from the conservative
commentator himself. Colbert is not making jokes; he is the joke. He is unwavering in
everything he says and does. Meddaugh writes that, “As the jester, Colbert signals the
absurdity of devotion to official discourse by reveling in it.”
lxxxv
He believes in the higher
power of public discourse and that what he says is fact, or that fact can ultimately be
altered depending on what he “thinks of it.”
lxxxvi
He uses phrases that the conservative
Katz
26

news hosts he mocks use, such as “the no-spin-zone” (a Bill O’Reilly favorite).
lxxxvii
His
persona most clearly shows a penchant for being a grandiose conservative while on his
own show, where a segment titled “The Word” shows the implicit seriousness that he has
for the subject matter, no matter how ridiculous.
Author Jennifer Phillips explains in her essay Humour, political satire and ironic
tension between the “real” and “fictional” Stephen Colbert that the segment consists of
Colbert giving a monologue of sorts with words in the background accompanying it.
What he says is incredibly conservative, such as his vehement support for the Tea Party
and his hatred for “Black Hitler” (Barack Obama). He, “[speaks] in an earnest manner, in
the tone of a desperate friend trying to warn his comrades in arms away from harm,
prefaced by a direct appeal to ‘listen to me.’”
lxxxviii
Phillips writes that Colbert’s persona
is always sincere in delivering his message and that he always means what he says.
However, it is undermined by the text that appears on the screen, which seems to be the
thoughts of the “real Colbert,” the one who is making liberal statements through the
satire.
lxxxix

In one segment cited by Phillips, Colbert speaks of how important it is for
Republicans to realize that President Obama is trying to destroy the Republican party. He
states that, “The president is trying to lead your party to its doom.” On the screen, though,
are the words “That’s Michael Steele’s job,” (the leader of the Republican National
Convention), producing a juxtaposition and irony that the show and his persona so
heavily depend upon.
xc
Colbert says one thing very adamantly, with all the sincerity in
the world, and the words on the screen produce the effective punch line, which is in direct
contradiction to what he says.
Katz

27

Part of what makes Colbert the commentator so endearing to his audience is his
straight face through all of his vehment anti-liberal bashing.
xci
Colbert speaks with
“spoken earnestness.” Phillips believes that it is “The Word” that gives viewers the
ability to “decode” his television character.
xcii
That persona is one that believes in
“truthiness,” a word that Colbert coined in 2005. The word, which has been officially
adopted by dictionaries, states that all reality is not based on actual fact. Instead, it is
based upon what we want to be real.
xciii
Colbert himself has said that political discourse is
based upon “truthiness,” and that “What you wish to be true is all that matters, regardless
of facts.”
xciv
His television persona sums up this point perfectly, as he appears to believe
everything he says, and because of that, it is, for all intents and purposes, the truth.
During presidential elections, “truthiness” takes center stage. Colbert appears to believe
everything that he says, regardless of the contrary discourse.
During the 2000 election, ballots in Florida were not counted, as there was a
debate over whether crumpled ballots should count towards the total. George Bush was
named president by the Supreme Court despite the fact there Democratic nominee Al
Gore actually had more votes when his lawyers tallied up the numbers. However, no
recount occurred. Colbert “reported” that Gore is going to take larger measures to get the
recount. With a straight face and all the sincerity he can muster, he tells the audience that
Gore, “is going to the Hall of Justice to plead his case before the Super Friends.”
xcv

Colbert continues by saying that this might not be such bad idea for Gore, as, “Space
Monkey Gleak is clearly in his camp.”
xcvi
Colbert continues to tell us that Bush decided
to counteract the Super Friends by going to the Legion of Doom.
xcvii
At the end of the
segment, Colbert tells the audience and Stewart that, “Jon, bottom line: [this election] is
Katz
28

far from over,” despite the fact that there were to be no further measures taken in the
recount.
xcviii
Here, Colbert displays the double messages that Baumgartner describes, the
idea of presenting a direct message and an indirect one. The direct message is one of
complete seriousness: that Gore is fighting for his political life, and that this is actual
news that is going to take place. The indirect message, of course, is that taking the
recount further wasn’t likely to happen. Throughout the report, though, Colbert remains
completely serious and delivers it as if he genuinely believes what he is saying.
In another Indecision 2000 segment entitled “The First Four Years,” Colbert
suggests how he believes Bush’s first term of presidency will go. In all seriousness as the
show’s Republican commentator, he tells Stewart that “Bush will have a golden chariot,”
and refers to Bush as, “the man who would be boy king.” He also says, “[Bush] will
make whores of our wives and slaves of our children.”
xcix
Again, we are presented with
Colbert being completely serious, but satiric at his core. He describes how “he thinks” the
four years will go, but in reality knows what he is saying is impossibly ridiculous.
Nevertheless, his persona is serious, indicating that what he says is the truth regardless of
its absurdity.
“Truthiness” is most apparent in Indecision 2000 when he appears in segments
with his Democratic counterpart, Steve Carell. They argue over the merits of a recount
and cannot come to common ground about how it should be handled. Carell makes the
point that Gore is ahead by 200,000 votes in Florida, and that there is no way that Bush
deserves to win the presidency with such a discrepancy in votes and delegates. Colbert,
straight faced as always, responds with, “Those numbers are misleading. I could just as
easily say George W. Bush is 200,000 under par which, if you know about golf, George
Katz

29

Bush is the winner.”
c
Colbert is directly supporting the Republicans with such a
statement, but at the same time undermines it with his indirect message: the recount and
the ways in which people thought about it at the time were bizarre. Colbert illustrates
this, but being the conservative rock that he is, is serious about what he says. He supports
Bush and believes that he should be president, despite the fact that underneath is a
message that is clearly liberal and not heavily in favor of the conservatives.
Colbert’s steadfast reliance on truthiness also makes an appearance in the 2012
election coverage, specifically in the primaries. When the California voting was taking
place, Republican candidate Rick Santorum complained about the state of the curriculum
in California’s public universities, ridiculing it for not having American history as a
prerequisite. He cited his source as, “something from the state of California,” which was
clearly a mashing of words, referring to some state paper from California, not an actual,
specifically named publication. Colbert agreed with Santorum that the curriculum needs
to be included in universities, saying, “That is an outrage. American history should be
one of the cornerstones of a college education.”
ci
He then has some fun with it, however,
as he reveals Santorum’s information is incorrect. “The only thing that would be more
outrageous is if this were true,” Colbert says with a completely straight face

.
cii
He then
restates that Santorum is right in saying universities need more American history and
that, though his facts were wrong, his point shouldn’t be forgotten, reminding us that
“[Santorum] pulled it out of … his heart,”
ciii
taking a pause after “of” to make it sound
like the word “ass” might follow. He then tells us that it really wasn’t Santorum’s fault
that he got the wrong information, as he had a “clear source.”
civ
Colbert explains that,
“Like all critics of higher education, Rick subscribes to the same West Coast newspaper
Katz
30

that I do.”
cv
He then takes out a newspaper and tells us its title: the Something From the
State of California News. Taking verbatim what the Republican candidate said, Colbert
insists that Santorum isn’t wrong and gets the same news that he subscribes to and is
intent on letting everyone in his audience know that Santorum is not at fault.
After looking through the obviously fake newspaper, Colbert brings up the fact
that, while the majority of state-run universities in California do have a history
curriculum, there is one that is noticeably absent: UC San Francisco. “And what’s their
excuse?” Colbert asks. “They’re a medical school.”
cvi
He says this with a serious tone, as
if he really thinks that there is no excuse for their not having the material as an option for
students. Relating back to the notion of truthiness, that the truth is whatever one wants it
to be, scenes such as those recounted paint the picture of a character who firmly believes
in his own truths.
Another such moment of obvious truthiness occurs the night after Obama
ultimately wins the election. In the same episode in which he wears a bathrobe, he
screams at viewers, “You don’t listen to anything I say! I’ve been bringing you the truth,
hot and hard now for seven years! … You think I do this night after night for your
amusement? I do this for America!”
cvii
Needless to say, the persona is completely serious,
believing his message is, in fact, the one that is best for the country.
The job of the traditional journalist is to be the “gatekeeper of information,”
“factual” and objective.
cviii
As gatekeeper, the anchor or journalist is expected to
objectively give viewers the most important news of the day, as a filter of sorts for the
public. Anchors are supposed to provide verifiable facts. As someone who is objective,
the journalist is not supposed to take sides and is supposed to simply be a reporter. Thus,
Katz

31

satire news is not actual news; it is the comedic performance of journalism, and is thus
held to a different standard.
cix

Colbert, however, is not supposed to be a traditional anchor or journalist. He is a
commentator. He serves as a mock-political analyst, throwing any objectivity out the
window. The material is critical and at the same time a parody, which makes the
performance of journalism as satire a delicate balance between what is said and what is
actually intended. Thus, the performance of journalism fits into its own category of
humor: “fake news.”
cx
Colbert’s truthiness prohibits him from being unbiased, which is
what he wants: the political commentators he is mocking are biased themselves. Colbert’s
image of a political commentator is an extreme exaggeration of everything seen on Fox
News and the like.
Colbert makes outrageous claims as if they are facts and does not care if they are
incorrect (as they inevitably are). Instead, he creates a reality where the truth does not
ultimately matter; instead, it is what he wants to believe that is important. And his
statements are meant to be taken as facts, no matter how absurd they may be. That is
partly why many people find him so funny; his character isn’t trying to be funny.
Colbert’s persona is just telling us what he believes and why we should believe it as well.
Similar to the way that Bill O’Reilly presents his ideas as fact, Colbert provides the
“news” in a similar vain. His opinions, however skewed, are his truths, and because of
this there is no personal obligation to what is factually occurring. Truthiness takes the
place of reality, as the job of the political commentator is to deliver a skewed and biased
view of the world’s happenings.

Katz
32

The Persona, Part 3: Sends Explicit/ Implicit Messages

Colbert’s satirical persona, because it is indistinguishable from his actual person,
is twofold in the sense of what viewers take in.
cxi
Author Jody Baumgartner writes in her
essay One “nation” under Stephen? The effects of The Colbert Report on American
Youth that “Satire contains at least two messages: a direct (explicit) and an indirect
(implicit) message.”
cxii
Baumgartner adds that viewers have the option of either taking
what Colbert is saying at face value or can look at the intended, implicit message to
gather Colbert’s meaning.
cxiii
“The explicit target of almost all of Colbert’s criticisms are
liberal democratic leaders and institutions,” she writes. While Colbert jabs at the liberals,
his message beneath his words is usually pro-liberal.
cxiv
Colbert almost always says
something but means something else. The implicit message is humorous because he is so
strong in expressing his explicit message, in the mold of the pundits and anchors he is
mocking.
cxv
While Colbert may speak like O’Reilly and say similar things, he is doing so
tongue in cheek, contradicting what he actually says.
cxvi

While his direct and indirect messages are most evident in his tenure on The
Colbert Report, his method of intentionally confusing his audience is readily apparent in
the Indecision series when he was a correspondent, particularly in reports and interviews.
In his crossing of color lines and ridiculous interview with Sharpton, Colbert not only
shows how unafraid he is but also shows his biases because they are only the explicit
message. One can take what he says at face value, but that would be doing his humor a
disservice. Colbert’s humor is what lies behind his words, not in what he is generally
Katz

33

saying.
cxvii
Baumgartner writes that such absurdity is what makes satire work, especially
Colbert’s. Because most audience members know that what Colbert says is actually not
what he means, it makes it easier to distinguish his persona from his actual self. The “real
Colbert” is essentially the man behind the implicit message. The explicit message that
Colbert gives, then, is the message and viewpoint of Stephen Colbert’s persona, the
image that he wants his character to display.
Diving deeper into Indecision and his interviews with various guests, it is
apparent that when he makes absurd statements, his explicit statement is being made.
When he tells Sharpton that, “You aren’t persuading you,” the statement is intentionally
ridiculous; his explicit message almost always is. In fact, it has to be. Otherwise, the
humor behind it would not make much sense. Though it is not a clear anti-liberal jab like
he made in The Colbert Report, there is certainly an implied irony at play when he
interviews guests, whether or not it be political irony.
cxviii
He asks Sharpton questions and
he makes bizarre statements because he is making fun of traditional news and the fact
that it, in general, news people are afraid to ask those sorts of questions.
cxix

In the 2008 coverage, the implicit/explicit messages became even more
prominent. It is best exemplified by the statement Colbert makes when Obama is about to
win the presidency. He says,
[Obama] might actually win this thing. And if he does, I don’t have any
thoughts. But I do have a lot of feelings. Now, I’m no supporter of Obama, but if
he does win, everyone would admit that this is a night long overdue. We, as a
nation, have reached that mountaintop, because at long last the United States have
fulfilled the greatest part of freedom: we have a president who is Hawaiian.
For decades, these proud people have been segregated from the rest of
America, literally on an island. Hawaiian kids growing up in grass huts thought
their only choice in life was selling poi on street corners or carving tiki idols just
to put mahi mahi on the table. Now they will know there are other options than
Katz
34

trying to make it big as a ukulele player. They could be president of the United
States.
cxx

Now, Colbert says this in all seriousness, as he always does. He doesn’t laugh; his
message is overtly sincere. However, beneath the words is a biting sarcasm making fun of
the fact that Obama was destined to be the first African-American president. Pundits were
talking up the historical importance of a black president, and Colbert is making fun of
this notion. And once the announcement is officially made, Colbert still remains
optimistic that McCain will win, saying that, “McCain can still pull this thing out.”
cxxi

Again, he takes shots at conservative journalists who remain dedicated to the
conservative cause until the very end. Explicitly, he is hopeful. However, we know his
message is truly a jab at pundits on Fox News and the like.
The 2012 coverage provides the same mixture of implicit and explicit messages as
the earlier campaigns. On election night, Colbert refuses to acknowledge the results that
Jon Stewart announces, saying that his show is unscripted and made up on the spot. Now,
as viewers, we know this is a total lie, as he clearly knows what he is talking about and is
well versed on politics on both sides of the spectrum. But he is adamant about “avoiding
spoilers,” saying that, “I can’t go into my show knowing anything about what my show is
about. I enter every show like a newborn baby. Clean slate, no preconceptions. Semi-
blind, covered in placenta and goo. Crying uncontrollably, waiting to be spanked by
life.”
cxxii
While this isn’t a political message, it is one about the nature of his show and
political shows in general: they are supposed to be interactive and on the spot, but in
reality, they are likely well scripted. And, as for the idea of a journalist not having
preconceived notions? Well, we know that is certainly not the truth, especially in the
world of conservative news hosts like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.
Katz

35

In terms of actual politics, though, Colbert provides many confusing messages in
the 2012 election. When it was announced by Romney’s camp that sitting in a barstool at
a presidential debate would prove difficult because Romney does not drink and that he
was practicing sitting on one, Colbert sympathizes with the Mormon candidate.
cxxiii
He
poses the question, “Where would [Romney] have seen [a bar stool]? His kitchen
counter? Everyone knows the Romney family eats sitting at podiums.”
cxxiv
Colbert
sounds like he supports Romney here and his difficulty sitting on a stool. But beneath the
surface, we know he is making fun of him, showing how ridiculous politics can be and
the subsequent sympathy candidates receive from their supporters and the measures they
take to prepare themselves.
Earlier in the election season, political polls indicated that Romney was going to
lose rather handily; the polls reflected as much. However, the skeptical Colbert said that
polls are not to be trusted. “Folks, he is surging,” Colbert tells us. “New polls have him
tied with or leading the president, and the New York Times’ 538 blog gives him a 28.6
percent chance of winning. He is on a rocket ride to plausible!”
cxxv
In another poll, which
categorized those questioned as “likely to vote” and “extremely likely to vote,” Colbert
insisted that Romney was, “Much closer among the ‘extremely interested.’ And
Romney’s tied among the ‘inexpressably intrigued.’ And he’s up 2 points when you only
count voters who are psychotically engaged.”
cxxvi
Colbert is clearly making fun of the
polling systems used to gauge the election before the actual voting. Outwardly, though,
he is serious about the polls and firmly believes Romney still has a chance. But the
reason he says he is optimistic is because of his implicit message: the polls are ridiculous
and can be skewed through interpretation.
Katz
36

Put altogether, the image of Colbert as a journalist is threefold: he is 1) ultra-
conservative, 2) steadfast in truthiness and 3) explicit in his messages, though they are
almost always undermined by a separate, biting liberal one. As has been described,
Colbert’s persona did undergo some modification when he became the host of his own
show. He gained his own audience and a voice that was sermonic rather than just
conservative because he is now a political commentator rather than a correspondent. He
became more extreme in the later election coverage and more condemning of liberal
ideology.

The Persona Compared to the Cast of That Was the Week That Was

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were hardly the first forms of satirical
newsrooms. That distinction belonged to That Was the Week That Was, a show that aired
from 1962-1963 on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
cxxvii
The show, which
featured David Frost as the lead anchor of the comedic news program, was controversial
and was taken off the air because it started too many problems with the general public
because of, amongst other things, being racist.
cxxviii
An episode followed this basic
structure:
“The show opened with a satirical song by Millicent Martin about the week of
news and then launched into an array of sketches, debates and monologues
lampooning figures from around the world. The Saturday night programme ran
for just two series and attracted an enormous number of complaints, but
reportedly pulled in an audience of 12 million.”
cxxix

The show was an interesting combination of sarcasm and plain crudeness. That
Was the Week That Was wasn’t so much a satire of a newsroom as a satire of the news
Katz

37

itself.
cxxx
Because the show was made so long ago, there are not many clips out there to
examine. However, The Telegraph, a British newspaper, published an article in
November 2012 remembering the 50
th
anniversary of the show, and subsequently posted
three clips online that they felt best summarized the show and its importance, along with
some of its more controversial moments. The first clip is called “The consumer guide to
religion.” The second is called “President Kennedy’s assassination” while the third is
called “Millicent’s Mississippi number.”
cxxxi

In the first clip, Frost hosts what amounts to a buyer’s guide for religions, based
upon three standards: what one puts into it, what one gets out of it, and how much it
costs. “Of the dozens of products on the market, we investigated the following six:
Judaism, the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant church, Islam, and Communism,”
Frost said to open the segment. “We ruled out Hinduism because it embodies a caste
system, which we felt was alien to the British consumer. However, the Hindu does
believe that animals have souls, every bit as good as human ones. In this sense, it could
be said that every Englishman is a Hindu at heart.”
cxxxii

The first religion examined was Judaism, which Frost described as having
“several do’s and don’ts” and proclaiming it as being a “membership to the oldest club in
the world.” One major drawback, though, was the fact that there were, “wages of a
reliable gentile to run the business between sunset on Friday and sunset Saturday.” (the
Jewish Sabbath). The Roman Catholics have a simpler system, according to Frost: “The
confessional mechanism is standard: the rule is don’t, but if you must, confess as soon as
possible afterward. We found this very useful.” The biggest downside? The inability to
get divorced. The Protestants, meanwhile, only had God third in the list of importance,
Katz
38

behind the queen and the prime minister. Muslims had very strict rules, but had one
major benefit:
“What do you get out of it?” Frost asked. “Up to five wives.”
Communism didn’t really fit into the rest of the religious groupings, and Frost
explained it as such. “We don’t understand why communism is on the market at all,” he
said. “It’s very recent, mass produced, and its chief prophet appears to have no
background in the industry at all.” In the end, Frost explains that, “All the better religions
claim to offer eternal happiness and an everlasting heaven. We decided to test these
claims, but were unfortunately unable to find anyone who would undertake this. We
apologize for our failure to verify this important aspect of the product.” The Church of
England was deemed the best of all, because it was the most cost effective.
cxxxiii

The second segment, which was shown the day after Kennedy was killed, did not
satirize; instead, it was an episode of mourning and recounted the other famous
individuals who had died in the same year (1963). Martin sang a song about Kennedy; the
lyrics did not rely on comedy to impact viewers.
The young man rose with his head held high under the Texas sun. And no one
guessed that a man so blessed would perish by the gun … A shot rang out like a
sudden shout and heaven held its breath. For the dreams of a multitude of men
rode with him to his death … Yes, the heart of the world weighed heavy with a
helpless mess of tears for the man cut down in a Texas town in the summer of his
years.
cxxxiv

Instead of puns or sarcasm, this segment tackled the topic in a respectful manner.
The idea of respect and tact is nowhere to be found in the third segment, however.
The segment is centered around the murder of civil-rights activist named Medgar
Evers.
cxxxv
The show used a musical number with lyrics to generalize the state of
Mississippi (where the shooting happened) as inherently racist.
cxxxvi
Millicent Martin
Katz

39

sang the following, wearing an American flag-themed top hat and an accompanying
leotard.
I wanna go back to Mississippi where the scent of blossoms kiss the evening
breeze. Where the Mississippi mud kind of mingles with the blood of the niggers
that are hanging from the branches in the trees. I wanna go back to Mississippi so
honey, don’t be late. Up above, there’s nothing but a butter-covered moon while
down below they’re cutting up a chocolate covered coon. So carry me back to
Mississippi, that all-American state.
cxxxvii

After this, several other men in blackface joined Martin and sang that, “Mississippi is the
state you gotta choose, where we hate all the darkness and the Catholics and the
Jews.”
cxxxviii

By The Telegraph’s account, the segment upset a lot of people and probably did
not do much to help it stay on the air.
cxxxix

Segments such as these are a great indicator of what the show attempted: bringing
attention to the biggest issues of the day in a manner that grabbed viewers’ attention,
even if it was crude. Though this may have ultimately led to the demise of the television
show, it is almost exactly what The Daily Show and The Colbert Report do. The shows
use brash comedic tactics and shock to bring light to important issues.
That Was the Week That Was was divided into recurring segments as are
Stewart’s and Colbert’s shows. The show is similar to The Daily Show and that Frost is
akin to Stewart: Frost serves as a facilitator and he has several people who help him out
with the show to make it all happen. Stewart is serious as the anchor, and is very Frost-
esque in his delivery. He is comedic because of punch lines, well thought-out arguments
and the ability to speak his mind and not take sides for the most part.
In the process, however, Colbert is very unlike Frost. Frost does not have a
persona; he is not satirizing an entire type of journalist in the way that Colbert is
Katz
40

mimicking O’Reilly. As such, there are not two David Frosts as there are two Stephen
Colberts. Frost and Colbert.
cxl
They shock in very different ways. That Was the Week
That Was horrified viewers because of its segments and the fact that it was, at times,
straight up discriminatory. Its segments and jokes were what made viewers laugh (and
sometimes cringe). There wasn’t the inherent knowledge that Frost was sending explicit
and implicit messages as there is with Colbert. We laugh at Colbert because we know his
character is a farce. We know Frost did not mean the things he said because he was not a
biased persona. He was a facilitator of the news and was not commentating on things.
The segments did the job of relaying messages to viewers.
Colbert takes things a step further than Frost. In addition to having comical
segments that pointed out the hilarity or strangeness of the news, Colbert took on the role
of a commentator and political analyst. Colbert’s persona and its biases added an
additional element of comedy that Frost lacked. The newscaster David Frost did not have
opinions on the news. Colbert, however, has an attachment to the world’s happenings
because he is supposed to be conservative.
Colbert’s humor is not dependent upon racist segments that change depending on
the event at hand to make a specific point. He is dependent upon his fervent conservatism
and the audience’s knowledge that he is sending explicitly conservative messages that are
undermined by implicit liberal views, resulting in comedy. That Was the Week That Was
succeeds because it is outrageous. It is crude and makes fun of everything, regardless of
whether the topic was thought to be “off limits.”
cxli
Frost and the rest of the cast make fun
of the news itself and the way that it is tackled traditionally. They don’t fear insulting
groups to make a point.
Katz

41

While he does not care about offending, Colbert makes fun of the people who
present the news and has created a persona that allows him to mock them. The persona is
completely serious and brash. His so-called sincerity creates the comedic effect. We are
not meant to believe the things that go on in Frost’s show, and as an anchor, he doesn’t
believe them either, as they are just jokes written on a page that he has clearly
memorized. Colbert, though, because of his persona, appears sincere. He does not depend
on jokes with punch lines. It is his steadfast belief in everything conservative that creates
humor. Frost knows that he is making comedy; he is an actor and a facilitator delivering
rehearsed lines. Colbert’s persona, on the other hand, is a commentator. Though he is
clearly delivering a rehearsed script, we are meant to believe that what he says are his
beliefs. He does not know that, as a staunch conservative, he himself is the ongoing joke
rather than the segments themselves.

The Persona Compared to Ron Burgundy

While That was the Week That Was originated the satirical news genre, finding
comparisons for Colbert in modern culture proves to be surprisingly difficult, as he is
really the first and premiere mock-analyst. However, Colbert’s three-pronged persona is
somewhat similar to that of the typical image of the journalist. In his paper Analyzing the
Images of the Journalist in Popular Culture: a Unique Method of Studying the Public’s
Perception of its Journalists and the News Media, Joe Saltzman writes that in the 20
th

century, the image of the journalist was one of “brashness and cunning.”
cxlii
He describes
journalists as being “more like detectives than journalists,” taking the liberty of
Katz
42

uncovering the truth upon themselves.
cxliii
Colbert is similar to this; he is searching for
truths in his show, no matter how ridiculous the truth is he that he wants to convey. He is,
however, a political commentator and bases many of his truths on preconceived notions.
Most satirical journalists do not do this; they deliver punch lines and do not search for or
provide truths in the way that Colbert’s persona strives for. Instead, they focus on
delivering the comedy and letting the audience figure out the comedy themselves.
What also separates Colbert from other “fake broadcast journalists” is that his
persona is intertwined with politics outside of his television show. He exists outside of
The Colbert Report sphere, as a person and as a persona. Generally, the image of the
broadcast journalist is that of someone who deals with local news and exists only in his or
her supposed medium, such as Ron Burgundy in the popular film Anchorman.
Burgundy is a local television anchor in San Diego, CA, and is known for making
gaffes on the air without purposefully meaning to.
cxliv
He is irrational, fails to see the
whole side of an issue, and is self-absorbed, much in the way that Colbert’s persona is.
One of the distinguishing differences is that they exist in two very different news realms.
Burgundy exists only on a local level, while Colbert is known nationally, and takes on
issues all around the world.
However, Burgundy and Colbert do share one common characteristic: they
always remain in character. While Colbert has two personalities, his persona is the one
we see on television and the one we all know. It is seen at dinners, on stage at awards
shows, and when he is the guest on other television shows. In fact, it is the only one with
which we are familiar. Similarly, Burgundy, “always plays the part of the anchor,”
throughout his existence on screen.
cxlv
Because Burgundy is seen throughout his everyday
Katz

43

life, a viewer may conclude that his personality off screen is the same as it is on
television: arrogant, self-centered, and gullible.
cxlvi
Burgundy is seen throughout the
movie existing as the same we see, much in the way Colbert does. Though Ron Burgundy
does not exist outside of Anchorman and Stephen Colbert does, there are two different
Colberts. The one that is on television never breaks character in a similar manner to that
of Burgundy.
Another shared feature is that both are modeled after some sort of pre-existing
journalistic stereotype. Emily Nerland writes that “Burgundy is an exaggeration of the
already tarnished stereotypes of the anchor.”
cxlvii
The image of the broadcast journalist is
typically one who is clueless and takes himself incredibly seriously. In a similar vein,
Colbert is an exaggeration of right-wing news commentators like O’Reilly, and further
reinforces existing stereotypes that in the same way Burgundy’s character does.
Though Colbert and Burgundy certainly share traits, the key difference is that
Burgundy does not exist outside the movie, and does not actually deliver news of
importance to a real-life audience. Colbert, on the other hand, though he is indeed a
caricature of a journalist, nonetheless delivers news to real people and still maintains a
persona that the audience knows is not real. Colbert has true influence over people (fair
or not) and is an inflated stereotype of a type of news personality that exists in our world.
Also adding to their differences is the fact that Burgundy is not searching for the truth or
making political statements, whereas Colbert clearly has an agenda for his viewers to
follow. Colbert has a message for the masses. Burgundy, we assume, is just delivering the
facts.

Katz
44

The Persona Compared to Cast of Weekend Update

Other satirical newsmen who are comparable to Colbert are the news anchors on
Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update.” The popular segment has been running since
1975 when its original anchor, Chevy Chase, began sending up popular news stories.
cxlviii

A typical segment has one or two anchors sitting behind a news desk. When delivering
the news, the anchors make jokes about the story at hand, often going for quick laughs.
The majority of their jokes are entertainment related, though politics are involved as well.
“Weekend Update” skewers stories that are in the public eye. They do not necessarily
serve as an actual news source for those who watch. For the most part, those tuning into
“Weekend Update” have an idea of what the news is; they tune in to see it made fun of.
While it would be a mistake to consider Colbert’s and Stewart’s shows as actual news,
they do add a perspective often missing in traditional newscasts. They bring light to
issues network news often does not.
One of the best representations of the humor that the segment strives for is found
in a collection of clips called “The Best of Weekend Update with Norm McDonald, Pt.1.”
McDonald was a popular host of the segment from 1994-1997.
cxlix
In this collection of
clips, a key focus is Michael Jackson, the pop star who had several legal battles during
the 1990s. In one clip, McDonald discusses Jackson’s latest marriage. McDonald says
that, “Asked what makes his new bride special, the King of Pop said, ‘She has taught me
about the power of imagination, like imagining that a grown woman is a 10-year old
boy.”
cl
McDonald makes the joke because the general public was aware that Jackson had
Katz

45

been in trouble previously for pedophilia.
cli
McDonald is not really breaking news here.
Instead, he is making fun of the fact that Jackson is a known pedophile.
Another segment with McDonald hosting involves musician Kenny G. McDonald
announces that G has a new album coming out for the holiday season and states, “Hey,
happy birthday, Jesus. I hope you like crap!”
clii
McDonald’s purpose is to make viewers
laugh by making fun of the subject; not to break the news of the album itself.
McDonald and “Weekend Update” also venture outside of entertainment. In one
segment, McDonald discusses the AIDS epidemic and a recent study saying fewer people
had the disease. McDonald starts off seriously but quickly changes course. “But it is
important for viewers to remember one thing: sex without condoms [pause] feels
better.”
cliii
These clips display what lay at the heart of “Weekend Update”: not necessarily
a desire to share the news, but to make fun of aspects of the news in a way people can
relate to. In this way, it shares similarities with That was the Week that Was, as the show
is host-centric and aims for easy laughs based on the content of its jokes and punch lines.
Chevy Chase operated in a similar manner, but had a slightly different persona.
He was a bit more serious than McDonald, and was good about delivering his lines as if
they were actually the news. However, the product was generally the same. In one
segment, Chase is talking about a cold that President Gerald Ford had recently gotten
over.
cliv
“White House physicians say that after a mild cold of that sort, it will take the
president a few days to recover his motor skills fully,” Chase tells his audience. “Citing
the period after his last cold, when he tied his shoe to a hair blower and inadvertently
pardoned Richard Nixon.”
clv
Clearly, this is nothing more than a jab; it is not a statement
from a specific political point of view. It’s just a joke. Chase continued in a similar
Katz
46

manner when talking about Ronald Reagan. “Starting a speaking tour this week, former
governor Ronald Reagan spoke out against marijuana, abortion, equal rights amendment
and gun control legislation,” Chase said with a straight face. “When asked what he was
for, he replied, ‘Hair-dye’.”
clvi
Again, this is not a jab at politics so much as it is a jab at a
the age of the man in question, a very different tactic from Colbert’s commentary on
politics.
McDonald, Chase, and the other anchors of Weekend Update share certain
qualities with Colbert. Each has a specific persona when he or she delivers his or her
content. For instance, McDonald has a particular tagline that he could always be
identified with: “I’m Norm McDonald, and now the fake news.”
clvii
Chase had the
famous, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.” McDonald was very tongue-in-cheek when
he spoke behind the news desk, and viewers knew to expect this from him. This is similar
to the expectation when Colbert delivers his material, one of a “conservative” bias.
Viewers came to expect a certain persona from McDonald and the other anchors,
stemming partly from their taglines and also from their general demeanor while
delivering content.
While the idea of a persona is similar in Colbert and anchors in Weekend Update,
there are key differences. Colbert’s persona exists not just to make viewers laugh, but to
also make a statement about the news and its conveyors. His persona mocks conservative
commentators and takes their politics to the extreme. He is decidedly biased and
connected to his material. Weekend Update anchors, on the other hand, are not trying to
make political statements and appear more disconnected from their content. Rather, they
are trying to make fun of the news and get the audience to laugh as Frost did in the early
Katz

47

1960s. Colbert certainly creates laughs, but it is because he is mocking a specific type of
journalist.
Another key difference is that Colbert actually serves as a news source when the
traditional news does not suffice. As was shown by the viewership data of The Colbert
Report and The Daily Show, many people actually watch the Comedy Central programs
for news. Based on the fact that Saturday Night Live airs at 11 p.m. on Saturdays, it is
clear that it is not intended to be a main source of news. It is there to make people laugh,
but not to serve as a news source. This goes back to the idea of “journalistic function.”
Colbert and Stewart are not news sources themselves. They do, however, deliver news
and make fun of its hypocrisy and the politics behind it. They are able to touch upon
things in humorous ways that traditional newscasts cannot. “Weekend Update” on the
other hand depends on jokes to get laughs rather than actual critique of the news or the
content being delivered.
Finally, it is important to note that Colbert’s persona exists outside the television
show, whereas the Saturday Night Live anchors only exist behind the news desk. Colbert
has given performances as his persona. Norm McDonald’s anchor persona only exists
within the segment. Though McDonald exists as a person in reality in the same way that
Colbert does, there are two Colberts in reality, a person and the persona. There is only
one McDonald once Saturday Night Live ends.

Katz
48

Conclusion

Stephen Colbert has become a household name for a multitude of reasons over the
past 12 years. He has simultaneously provided the world with an image of a journalist
and managed to deliver the actual news while critiquing the way its is presented. He is
the only fake journalist in memory who exists in reality and is truly politically active.
Colbert’s image is one that is multifaceted: It is ultra-conservative, serious, and
intentionally confusing. Colbert’s persona is an intended parody of political
commentators and the political commentary that exists. In being a parody, though, he
delivers people the news by filling the void that traditional newscasts omit. As opposed to
traditional images of comical news anchors, such as Burgundy, Colbert, David Frost and
That Was the Week That Was and the cast of Saturday Night Live deals with actual issues,
albeit in very different ways.
Colbert’s persona is successful because it is a satirical image of actual well-
known journalists that manages to exist on its own in the real world. He can interact with
his audiences and appears live. He gives his audiences the impression that he is
conservative and that he truly believes what he says and is unwavering in his beliefs, as a
Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter might do on popular conservative news stations. Though he
is not a true news anchor or journalist, he serves a journalistic function by filling the gap
that newscasts leave in their wake.
Consequently, he performs journalism to a point where audiences have learned to
trust him as a main source of news. The persona Colbert displays on television,
particularly during the election seasons of 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 shows the type of
Katz

49

journalist he has learned to mock to perfection: the ultra-conservative, completely
serious, and at the same time intentionally confusing. Though he gives the image of being
politically to the right, it is not sincere. Because he is a satire of traditional conservative
correspondents and commentators, he clearly mocks the very people he impersonates.
While his persona has grown more ridiculous since becoming the host of his own show,
that same mock-conservative bias has been evident from the very beginning.
Colbert can be compared to other popular satirical journalists, such as the fictional
Ron Burgundy, David Frost from That Was the Week That Was and the anchors from
“Weekend Update,” but key differences separate them and likely always will: Colbert
critiques the methods in which news and commentary are presented. He is not critiquing
traditional news like other fake newscasts have done in the past. Instead, he is critiquing a
specific genre of journalist: the political commentator.
Ron Burgundy doesn’t give real news and appears only in the movie. Weekend
Update and That was the Week that Was newscasts aim almost exclusively for laughs by
way of quick jokes and do not attempt to critique news, the way it is presented, or make
fun of its hosts. Whereas these fake newscasts had actual jokes and carefully scripted
puns, Stephen Colbert (the persona) is and will always be the biggest joke of all because
his whole show is based on mocking conservative talk show hosts.
Consequently, Colbert serves as a new type of “fake journalist” we haven’t seen
before. He delivers actual news and parodies a type of journalist never before mocked. As
a fake conservative analyst, his persona is given the freedom to express his opinions and
mask them as the truth. He is able to do this because it is what real hosts on Fox News do.
Katz
50

In mocking Bill O’Reilly, Colbert brings light to the strangeness that is political
commentary. His mockery fills a void in traditional newscasts through comical irony.

Katz

51

i
Robert Tally, Jr., “I Am the Mainstream Media (and So Can You!)”
ii
Priscilla Marie Meddaugh, “Bakhtin, Colbert, and the Center of Discourse.” Critical
Studies in Media Communication 27, No.4 (2010), 376-390.
iii
Polticus USA, “Jon Stewart’s Ratings Are Now Higher Than All of Fox News,”
Politicususa.com, http://www.politicususa.com/jon-stewart-fox-ratings/ (accessed 3
March 2012).
iv
Sandra L. Borden and Chad Tew, “The Role of Journalist and the Performance of
Journalism: Ethical Lessons From ‘Fake’ News (Seriously).” Journal of Mass Media
Ethics, 2007, 305.
v
Joe Hale Cutbirth. 2011. Satire as Journalism: The Daily Show and American Politics
at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, 80.
vi
Ibid.,79-81.
vii

Gzedit.
“Cheerleaders
Conservative
Commentators,”
Charleston
Gazette
(West

Virginia),
Nov.
13,
2003.

viii
Adam Sternbergh, “Stephen Colbert Has America by the Ballots.” New York Magazine,
8 October 2006, http://nymag.com/news/politics/22322/ (accessed 6 March 2012), 4.
ix
Ibid., 4.
x
Jody C. Baumgartner, “One ‘nation’ under Stephen? The effects of The Colbert Report
on American Youth.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 2008.
xi
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
xii
Borden, “The Role of Journalist.”
xiii
Meddaugh, “Bakhtin,” 376-390.
xiv
Adam Sternbergh. “Stephen Colbert has America by the Ballots.” New York Magazine.
2006.
xv
Tally, Jr., “I Am the Mainstream.”
xvi
Thomas Hanitzsch, “Deconstructing Journalism Culture: Toward a Universal Theory.
Communication Theory, 2007
xvii
Emily Nerland, “The Image of the Local Television News Anchor in Anchorman: The
Legend of Ron Burgundy.”
xviii
Joe Saltzman, “Analyzing the Images of the Journalist in Popular Culture: a Unique
Method of Studying the Public’s Perception of Its Journalists and the News Media.”
xix
Jennifer Phillips, “Humour, political satire and ironic tension between the ‘real’ and
the ‘fictional’ Stephen Colbert,” (University of Wollongong), accessed 6 March 2012.
xx
Phillips, 2008. “Humour,” 1-3
xxi
Polticus USA, “Jon Stewart’s Ratings Are Now Higher Than All of Fox News,”
Politicususa.com, http://www.politicususa.com/jon-stewart-fox-ratings/ (accessed 3
March 2012).
xxii
Politicus USA, “Jon Stewart.”
xxiii
Politicus USA, “Jon Stewart.”
xxiv
Comedy Central Press, “Comedy Central Records Most-Watched Month Ever in
November,” Comedycentral.com,
http://www.comedycentral.com/press/press_releases/2008/120308_most-watched-month-
ever.jhtml (accessed 1 March 2012).

Katz
52

xxv
Olivia Barker, “Look Out, Jon Stewart …” USA Today,
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-11-01-stewart-main_x.htm (accessed 2 March
2012).
xxvi
Barker, “Look Out.”
xxvii
Vulture, “Jon Stewart’s Nielsen Ratings Down 15 Percent; Colbert’s Up 11 Percent,”
Vulture.com, http://www.vulture.com/2008/01/stewarts_ratings_down_15_colbe.html
(accessed 3 March 2012).
xxviii
Cutbirth, Satire as Journalism, 80-81
xxix
Wikipedia, The Daily Show, Wikipedia.com,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Show.
xxx
Rachel Joy Larris, “The Daily Show Effect: Humor, News, Knowledge and Viewers,”
(Master’s thesis, Georgetown University) 112-113.
xxxi

Culture
Wars:
An
Encyclopedia
of
Issues,
Viewpoints,
and
Voices.
“Bill
O’Reilly.”
1
Oct. 2010. Web. 9 Feb. 2013.
http://www.credoreference.com.libproxy.usc.edu/entry/sharpecw/o_reilly_bill.

xxxii
Meddaugh, “Bakhtin,” 377.
xxxiii
Ibid., 377-378.
xxxiv
Ibid., 376-378.
xxxv
Ibid., 376-378.
xxxvi
Ibid., 376-379.
xxxvii
Borden, “The Role of Journalist,” 307.
xxxviii
Ibid., 310.
xxxix
Ibid., 311.
xl
Ibid., 312.
xli
Ibid., 306-309.
xlii

Ed
Bark,
“Conservative
Commentators
Twisting
Dial
to
the
Right,”
Dallas
Morning

News
(Dallas,
TX),
July
10,
1993.

xliii

Ibid.

xliv

Gzedit,
“Cheerleaders.”

xlv

Ibid.

xlvi

Ibid.

xlvii

Culture
Wars

xlviii

Ibid.

xlix

Ibid.

l

Ibid.

li
Biography, “Stephen Colbert,” Biography.com,
http://www.biography.com/people/stephen-colbert-40920 (accessed 7 March 2012).
lii
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
liii
Biography, “Stephen Colbert.”
liv
Ibid.
lv
Tally, Jr., “I am the Mainstream,” 158.
lvi
Ibid.
lvii
Sternbergh, “Stephen Colbert,” 4-5.

Katz

53

lviii
Tally, Jr., “I am the Mainstream,” 160.
lix
Ibid., 159-160.
lx
Ibid., 160.
lxi
Ibid., 160.
lxii
Meddaugh, “Bakhtin,” 380.
lxiii
Ibid., 380.
lxiv
Ibid., 380.
lxv
Ibid., 383.
lxvi
“Interviews I Could Get: Don King,” Indecision 2004: The Daily Show, 0:10.
lxvii
“Interviews I Could Get: Don King,” Indecision 2004: The Daily Show 0:55.
lxviii
“Interviews I Could Get: Don King,” Indecision 2004: The Daily Show 1:50.
lxix
“Minority Retort,” Indecision 2004: The Daily Show, 0:29.
lxx
“Minority Retort,” Indecision 2004: The Daily Show, 1:08.
lxxi
“Minority Retort,” Indecision 2004: The Daily Show, 2:13.
lxxii

“Bill
O’Reilly.”

lxxiii
“NH, KY and CT Results,” Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008.
lxxiv
“NH, KY and CT Results,” Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008, 0:16-
0:23.
lxxv
“NH, KY and CT Results,” Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008, 0:54-
0:59.
lxxvi
“NH, KY and CT Results,” Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008, 1:43-
1:55.
lxxvii
“Virginia Results,” Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008, 1:17-1:20.
lxxviii
“Second Presidential Debate Showdown,” The Colbert Report, Oct. 17, 2012, 0:41-
0:52.
lxxix
“Four More Years of Hopey Change,” The Colbert Report, Nov. 7, 2012, 2:38- 2:46.
lxxx
“Four More Years of Hopey Change,” The Colbert Report, Nov. 7, 2012, 1:26- 1:29.
lxxxi
Open Secrets, “What is a PAC?” http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacfaq.php
lxxxii
CNN Money, “Colbert super PAC discloses $1 million in donations,”
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/31/news/economy/colbert_super_PAC_filing/index.htm.
lxxxiii
Yahoo! News, “Colbert’s super PAC funds to be donated to charity,” The Ticket-
Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/colbert-super-pac-funds-donated-
charity-141017140--election.html.
lxxxiv
ABC News, “A Stephen Colbert Write-In Campaign in S.C.? Not So Fast.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/a-stephen-colbert-write-in-campaign-in-s-
c-not-so-fast/.
lxxxv
Meddaugh, “Bakhtin,” 381.
lxxxvi
Ibid., 381-384.
lxxxvii
Phillips, 2008. “Humour.”
lxxxviii
Ibid., 9-11.
lxxxix
Ibid., 9-11.
xc
Ibid., 10-11.
xci
Ibid., 10-11.
xcii
Ibid., 10-11.

Katz
54

xciii
Sternbergh, “Stephen Colbert.”
xciv
Meddaugh, “Bakhtin,” 376.
xcv
“Gore’s Next Step,” Indecision 2000: The Daily Show, Dec 13, 2000, 0:39.
xcvi
“Gore’s Next Step,” Indecision 2000: The Daily Show, Dec 13, 2000, 1:18.
xcvii
“Gore’s Next Step,” Indecision 2000: The Daily Show, Dec 13, 2000, 1:42.
xcviii
“Gore’s Next Step,” Indecision 2000: The Daily Show, Dec 13, 2000, 3:00.
xcix
“The First Four Years,” Indecision 2000: The Daily Show, Dec 13, 2000, 0:40.
c
“Recount,” Indecision 2000: The Daily Show, Dec 13, 2000.
ci
“Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart,” The Colbert Report, April 3, 2012, 1:10-1:31
cii

“Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart,” The Colbert Report, April 3, 2012, 1:34-‐
1:31.

ciii

“Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart,” The Colbert Report, April 3, 2012, 2:06-‐
2:10.

civ

“Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart,” The Colbert Report, April 3, 2012, 2:15.

cv

“Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart,” The Colbert Report, April 3, 2012, 2:23-‐
2:32.

cvi

“Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart,” The Colbert Report, April 3, 2012, 3:09-‐
3:15.

cvii

“Four More Years of Hopey Change,” The Colbert Report, Nov. 7, 2012, 1:13-‐1:21.

cviii
Borden, “The Role of Journalist,” 302-305.
cix
Ibid.
cx
Borden, “The Role of Journalist,” 302-307.
cxi
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxii
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxiii
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxiv
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxv
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxvi
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxvii
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxviii
Baumgartner, “One ‘nation.’”
cxix
Borden, “The Role of Journalist,” 306.
cxx

“Virginia Results,” Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008, 2:13-‐3:15.

cxxi

“Barack
Obama
Wins,”
Indecision 2008: The Daily Show, Nov. 4, 2008, 1:38-‐1:42.

cxxii

“Election
Night
2012:
This
Ends
Now-‐
Spoiler
Alert,”
Democalypse
2012,
The

Daily
Show,
Nov.
6,
2012,
1:38-‐2:11.

cxxiii
“Second Presidential Debate Showdown,” The Colbert Report, Oct. 17, 2012, 1:43-
1:55.

cxxiv

“Second Presidential Debate Showdown,” The Colbert Report, Oct. 17, 2012, 2:27-‐
2:36.

cxxv

“President
Obama’s
Obsessiveness
Plea,”
The
Colbert
Report,
Oct.
9,
2012,
0:42-‐
0:48.

cxxvi

“President
Obama’s
Obsessiveness
Plea,”
The
Colbert
Report,
Oct.
9,
2012,
0:22-‐
0:39.

cxxvii

IMDb,
That
Was
the
Week
That
Was.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131188/

Katz

55

cxxviii

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
Is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxix

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
Is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxx

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
Is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxi

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxii

“The
Consumer
Guide
to
Religion”
-‐
That
Was
The
Week
That
Was,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxiii

“The
Consumer
Guide
to
Religion”-‐
That
Was
The
Week
That
Was,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxiv

“President
Kennedy’s
Assassination”-‐
That
Was
the
Week
That
Was,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxv

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxvi

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxvii

“Millicent’s
Mississippi
Number”-‐
That
Was
the
Week
That
Was,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxviii

“Millicent’s
Mississippi
Number”-‐
That
Was
the
Week
That
Was,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxxxix

“Millicent’s
Mississippi
number”-‐
That
Was
the
Week
That
Was,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxl

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
Is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxli

The
Telegraph,
“That
Was
The
Week
That
Was
Is
50,”
Telegraph,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9699468/That-‐Was-‐The-‐Week-‐
That-‐Was-‐is-‐50.html.

cxlii
Saltzman, “Analyzing.”
cxliii
Ibid., 28.

Katz
56

cxliv
Nerland. “The Image.”
cxlv
Ibid., 22.
cxlvi
Ibid., 23.
cxlvii
Ibid., 23.
cxlviii
Saturday Night Live, “History of Weekend Update,” Saturday-Night-Live.com,
http://www.saturday-night-live.com/history/weekendupdate.html.
cxlix
Saturday Night Live, “History.”
cl
“The Best of Weekend Update With Norm McDonald, Pt. 1”
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3754280/the_best_of_weekend_update_with_norm_ma
cdonald_pt_1/.
cli
“The Best of Weekend.”
clii
“The Best of Weekend.”
cliii
“The Best of Weekend.”
cliv

“Saturday
Night
Live
Weekend
Update
with
Chevy
Chase,”

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1413.

clv

“Saturday
Night
Live
Weekend
Update
with
Chevy
Chase,”

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1413.

clvi

“Saturday
Night
Live
Weekend
Update
with
Chevy
Chase,”

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1413.

clvii
Saturday Night Live, “History of Weekend Update,” Saturday-Night-Live.com,
http://www.saturday-night-live.com/history/weekendupdate.html.

Katz

57

Bibliography

Bark, Ed. “Conservative Commentators Twisting Dial to the Right.” Dallas
Morning News, July 10, 1993. Accessed Feb. 9, 2013.
http://articles.mcall.com/1993-07-
10/entertainment/2938805_1_rush-limbaugh-radio-show-media-research-center.

Barker, Olivia. “Look Out, Jon Stewart …” USA Today,
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-11-01-stewart-main_x.htm (accessed 2 March
2012).

Baumgartner, Jody C. “One ‘Nation’ Under Stephen? The Effects of the Colbert
Report on American Youth.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 2008.

Biography. “Stephen Colbert,” Biography.com,
http://www.biography.com/people/stephen-colbert-40920 (accessed 7 March 2012).

Borden, Sandra L. and Chad Tew. “The Role of Journalist and the Performance of
Journalism: Ethical Lessons From ‘Fake’ News (Seriously).” Journal of Mass Media
Ethics. 2007.

Comedy Central Press. “Comedy Central Records Most-Watched Month Ever in
November,” Comedycentral.com,
http://www.comedycentral.com/press/press_releases/2008/120308_most-watched-month-
ever.jhtml (accessed 1 March 2012).

Culture
Wars:
An
Encyclopedia
of
Issues,
Viewpoints,
and
Voices.
“Bill
O’Reilly.”

Oct. 1, 2010. Accessed Feb. 9, 2013.
http://www.credoreference.com.libproxy.usc.edu/entry/sharpecw/o_reilly_bill.

Gzedit. “Cheerleaders Conservative Commentators.” Charleston Gazette, Nov.
13, 2003. Accessed Feb. 9, 2013.
http://zb5lh7ed7a.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-
2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-
8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journ
al&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Cheerleaders%3A+%3B+Conservative+commentators&rf
t.jtitle=The+Charleston+Gazette&rft.au=Gzedit&rft.date=2003-11-
13&rft.spage=4.A&rft.externalDBID=CGZT&rft.externalDocID=445577611.

Hanitzsch, Thomas. “Deconstructing Journalism Culture: Toward a Universal
Theory. Communication Theory, 2007.

Katz
58

Hartfield, Elizabeth. “A Stephen Colbert Write-In Campaign in S.C.? Not So
Fast.” ABC News, 13 January 2013, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/a-
stephen-colbert-write-in-campaign-in-s-c-not-so-fast/ (Accessed 10 January 2013).

Hartman, Rachel Rose. “Colbert’s Super PAC Funds to be Donated to Charity.”
Yahoo! News, 14 December, 2012, http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/colbert-super-pac-
funds-donated-charity-141017140--election.html (accessed 10 January 2013).

IMDb.
That
Was
the
Week
That
Was,
imdb.com,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131188/
(accessed 10 January 2013).

Larris, Rachel Joy. “The Daily Show Effect: Humor, News, Knowledge and
Viewers,” (Master’s thesis, Georgetown University) 112-113.

Meddaugh, Priscilla Marie. “Bakhtin, Colbert, and the Center of Discourse”.
Critical Studies in Media Communication 27, no.4 (2010).

Nerland, Emily. “The Image of the Local Television News Anchor in
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

Open Secrets. “What is A PAC?” Opensecrets.org
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacfaq.php (accessed 10 January 2013)

Phillips, Jennifer. “Humour, Political Satire and Ironic Tension Between the
‘Real’ and the ‘Fictional’ Stephen Colbert,” (University of Wollongong), accessed 6
March 2012.

Polticus USA. “Jon Stewart’s Ratings Are Now Higher Than All of Fox News,”
Politicususa.com, http://www.politicususa.com/jon-stewart-fox-ratings/ (accessed 3
March 2012).

Riley, Charles. “Colbert Super PAC Discloses $1 Million In Donations.” CNN
Money, 31 January 2012,
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/31/news/economy/colbert_super_PAC_filing/index.htm
(accessed 10 January 2013)

Saltzman, Joe. “Analyzing the Images of the Journalist in Popular Culture: a
Unique Method of Studying the Public’s Perception of Its Journalists and the News
Media.”

Saturday Night Live. “History of Weekend Update,” Saturday-Night-Live.com,
http://www.saturday-night-live.com/history/weekendupdate.html

Katz

59

Sternbergh, Adam. “Stephen Colbert Has America by the Ballots.” New York
Magazine, 8 October 2006, http://nymag.com/news/politics/22322/ (accessed 6 March
2012).

Tally, Jr., Robert. “I Am Mainstream Media (and So Can You!)”

Vulture. “Jon Stewart’s Nielsen Ratings Down 15 Percent; Colbert’s Up 11
Percent,” Vulture.com,
http://www.vulture.com/2008/01/stewarts_ratings_down_15_colbe.html (accessed 3
March 2012).

Wikipedia. The Daily Show, Wikipedia.com,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Show.

Katz
60

Appendix

The Daily Show

Indecision 2000:

Dec 13, 2000: “Gore’s Next Step”: Colbert is asked by Stewart what Al Gore’s next
move will be now that the recount has ended in his loss. Colbert doesn’t see Gore’s battle
as being over yet, however: he informs the audience and Stewart that Gore is going to
appeal to the Justice League, and that Bush will counter by consulting the Legion of
Doom. Interspersed are clips of the cartoons and Colbert tells us which side certain
members of the organizations are on.

Dec 13, 2000: “The First Four Years”: In this segment, Colbert describes what he thinks
Bush’s first term as president will look like. Colbert describes in strange detail, and
compares it somewhat to slavery and to images in the Bible. He also calls Bush the “boy
that would be king.” The segment essentially consists of a three-minute monologue
where Colbert just talks in rhythm, giving colorful descriptions.

Dec 13, 2000: “Recount”: Colbert and Steve Carell argue about the recount and about
how it is either necessary to do another one or to just leave it as is. Carell, the Democrat,
is obviously in favor of recounting the votes. Colbert, however, being the conservative,
states that Bush, although he is technically behind in Florida, actually wins because if
they score it as they do in golf, meaning a lower number of votes is actually better.

Indecision 2004:

“Interviews I Could Get”
September 29, 2003: Reverend Al Sharpton: Colbert sits down with Sharpton, who was
running for president at the time. Among the things he asks him are about his “sticking it
to the man” strategy and demands that he and Sharpton switch roles toward the end of the
interview.
June 17, 2004: Don King: Colbert interviews Don King, the controversial boxing
announcer. Don King is holding an American flag during the interview, and Colbert asks
politely that King “be more boisterous” because he is too subdued for Colbert’s liking.

“Minority Retort”

August 9, 2004: Colbert asks people who they want to win the Democratic nomination.
He looks for specific groups of people, such as Jews, Catholics, gays, etc. and calls them
by the categories they fit into. He is condescending and plays off the stereotypes of the
groups.

Katz

61

Coverage of Democratic Convention: Day 4

July 30, 2004: Colbert goes around the convention and takes in the sights and sounds,
talking to people along the way. He asks Democrats what they are looking for at the
convention, and covers John Kerry accepting the Democratic nomination. He also makes
fun of Willy Nelson, who was the guest musician at the convention. He attempts to
interview convention goers, but they do not really want to talk because they would rather
watch John Kerry.

Coverage of Republican Convention: Day 1

August 31, 2004: Colbert goes around New York, the site of the convention, and
discusses why it is a great place to hold the event. He cites the parking and the diversity
of people there as key reasons.

Indecision 2008:

NH, KY and CT Results

November 4, 2008: Colbert and Stewart are live on set, reading the results as they come
in. Colbert is furious at the lack of support his candidate, John McCain, is receiving.

Virginia Results

November 4, 2008: Colbert has a near breakdown when the usually conservative Virginia
goes to eventual president-elect Barack Obama. He then discusses what the election of
Obama means in a historical context.

Barack Obama Wins

November 4, 2008: Colbert and Stewart go over the results of the election, but Colbert
refuses to believe that McCain has lost.

The Colbert Report

Election 2012:

Rick Santorum Speaks From His Heart

Katz
62

April 3, 2012: Rick Santorum had made a statement about the state of college education
in California. He said that there was no mandatory history curriculum at the University of
California. Colbert naturally defends him, even though his facts are clearly incorrect.

President
Obama’s
Obsessiveness
Plea

October
9,
2012:
In
this
segment,
Colbert
discusses
the
fact
that
Romney
is

“surging.”
He
also
talks
about
Obama’s
tactics.

Second Presidential Debate Showdown

October 17, 2012: Colbert recaps the debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Colbert thinks Romney clearly won.

Election
Night
2012:
This
Ends
Now
—
Spoiler
Alert

November
6,
2012:
Stewart
is
transitioning
from
his
show
to
Colbert’s.
As
Stewart
is

about
to
talk,
Colbert
starts
yelling
and
says
he
refuses
to
know
any
of
the
results,
as

he
likes
to
go
into
his
show
without
any
preconceived
notions.

Four More Years of Hopey Change

November 7, 2012: Colbert is very distraught, as Romney lost the election. He is wearing
a bathrobe and eating popcorn and at one point opens a beer in the episode, and talks
about how bad it is that Obama is president again.

Saturday Night Live

The Best of Weekend Update with Norm McDonald, Pt. 1

This is a user-made collection of clips featuring some of the best segments of “Weekend
Update” while McDonald was the host. It features McDonald delivering jokes and puns
about the news of the time.

Saturday
Night
Live
Weekend
Update
with
Chevy
Chase

This
was
a
Hulu
clip
that
featured
Chevy
Chase
delivering
the
news.
He
covers
about

four
or
five
stories
in
the
clip,
including
one
scene
dealing
with
Ronald
Reagan.

Katz

63

That
Was
the
Week
That
Was

The
Consumer
Guide
to
Religion

David
Frost
discusses
several
religions
and
the
ways
in
which
they
are
cost
effective.

He
discusses
Judaism
and
many
other
religions
in
an
attempt
to
find
out
which
one

makes
the
most
sense.

President
Kennedy’s
Assassination

Millicent
sings
a
song
commemorating
the
life
and
tragic
death
of
President

Kennedy.
The
episode
is
far
different
from
other
ones,
at
it
has
no
intention
of
being

comical.

Millicent’s
Mississippi
Number

Millicent
takes
the
opportunity
to
sing
about
how
wonderful
Mississippi
is
in
a
very

ironic
tone.
She
is
joined
by
dancers
wearing
black
face.
The
scene
made
a
lot
of

people
angry.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract The goal of this paper is to examine television icon Stephen Colbert as a journalist by looking at his work during the last four presidential elections. This paper briefly examines Colbert’s personal history and defines the “fake news genre.” It then looks at Stephen Colbert the person and Stephen Colbert the persona. It explores their differences and examines the persona as a three-fold caricature that makes a mockery of conservative television pundits and still maintains political influence in the real world. The paper then compares Colbert to other “fake journalists” and attempts to establish how exactly Colbert functions in the world of modern journalism.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Gender confusion and the female journalist: TV journalist Robin Scherbatsky of How I met your mother

PDF

Heels, microphones, and unlikely heroines: comparing the female broadcast journalist in the fiction of Sparkle Hayter and Kelly Lange

PDF

The reality of fiction: understanding autism through narrative films

PDF

Two-faced: the image of the female political journalist in American film

PDF

Do, re, media: the image of the journalist in popular culture

PDF

Fashion transgressions and crimes of style: the image of the female fashion journalist

PDF

The lovesick journalist: the image of the female journalist in Danielle Steel’s novels

PDF

The image of the journalist as loyal, loquacious and lively: Alice Pieszecki in The L word

PDF

Jack McEvoy: From his rise to fame to the end of his game

PDF

Skid Row culture: an embedded journalist's exploration of art and community in the nation's homeless capital

PDF

Beyond the electronic curtain

PDF

Academy award campaigns: the evolution of PR and the film industry

PDF

Foraging: the life of wild food hunters

PDF

Adversary for a strange hero: depictions of journalists in Showtime's Dexter with comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly dreaming Dexter

PDF

News from Germany between 1985 and 1995 - a casualty of the end of the Cold War

PDF

A critical look at organic farming and positioning of organic products in the American market

PDF

Finding cultural identity in gamelan: a multimedia look at Balinese culture in Los Angeles through Gamelan Burat Wangi

PDF

The connoisseur of pain: a novel; and, A new and sharper vision: sensuous aesthetics as theological immersion in Terrence Malick's The tree of life, Thomas Kinkade's landscapes, and Ron Hansen's ...

PDF

VoxMox: creation of a website that reviews and critiques programming on Hispanic television networks

PDF

The changing face of arts journalism: an embedding experiment with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Asset Metadata

Creator Katz, Michael (author)

Core Title The ""truthiness"" behind American politics: a look at the image of Stephen Colbert as a journalist through the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential elections

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Print Journalism)

Publication Date 04/29/2013

Defense Date 04/29/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Colbert,IJPC,Journalism,OAI-PMH Harvest,presidential election

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Saltzman, Joseph (committee chair), Leonard, Jack (committee member), Sereno, Ken (committee member)

Creator Email katzml@usc.edu,kobeisbetterthanjordan@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-247926

Unique identifier UC11293999

Identifier etd-KatzMichae-1627.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-247926 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-KatzMichae-1627.pdf

Dmrecord 247926

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Katz, Michael

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA