Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist (9/20/2006)

At first I saw this and thought to myself, wow, this is a HUGE … collection of posts. But to paraphrase Freud, sometimes a Zeitgeist is just a Zeitgeist. Here’s your daily dose of Colbert-related pop culture for Wednesday, September 20.

From our Neighbors to the North: News from Canada

• David Letterman survives late night drama – Canada.com: This is a very interesting read about the evolution of late night television after the announcement of Carson’s retirement until today – “Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert at The Colbert Report are well established in the late-night arena, but not for doing typical chat. (In fact, truth be told, the interview segment of each show is usually the weakest.)”
• Is It a Foreign Affair? – Embassymag.ca: “In fact, we might not have picked up on this latest story had the New York Times not plastered a picture of the couple holding hands on its front page last week and raised the gossip of an affair. The paper even described Mr. MacKay as “the closest thing to eye candy on the diplomatic circuit.” And The Daily Show and The Colbert Report also weighed in. How could we ignore that? “
• Maher Arar is Vindicated – Hammerblog.com: “You can find video of the press conference here, that bit is about 4/5 of the way through. Stephen Colbert also opens with it in this clip, if you want to spend less time waiting to see this portion (the rest of the Colbert video isn’t really worth watching).” Editor’s note: ISN’T WORTH WATCHING?!?!? A pox on you!

Naming Stuff After Stephen

• Time to Vote in the Name our Mascot Contest – Blogging with the Strays (The Stray from the Heart Blog): According to the website, “Stray from the Heart is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and placement of homeless dogs. We provide shelter, veterinary care and loving homes for abandoned, lost, neglected and abused animals. We also provide training and education regarding the protection and care of animals, as well as ongoing support to the individuals and families who adopt from us.”

  And they’re jumping on the “Name Stuff After Stephen Colbert” bandwagon, and offering “Stephen Colbert” as an option for voting in their Name The Mascot contest.

• Meet Our Mascot – Liberadio: “Although he hasn’t lobbied Liberadio(!) we thought we would create a one-of-a-kind mascot that merges the things that we, and he, love the most – eagles, puppies, and of course, Stephen Colbert.”

Wikiality – Bringing you last month’s news today!

• Wikipedia chronicles lore, legend, lies – Des Moines Register: “Wikipedia launched five years ago, inviting anybody and everybody to be part of creating and editing a comprehensive, free encyclopedia. The democratic idea took off, although the accuracy of the material has been an ongoing debate. Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert recently edited his own entry while on his popular TV show, in addition to adding this to the “George Washington” entry: “In conclusion, George Washington did not own slaves.”"
• Wikipedia Selects C.U. Page As ‘Featured Article’ Today – Cornell Daily Sun:
  “Some people may question if being featured on Wikipedia is really an honor; the media has paid considerable negative lip-service to Wiki’s policy of allowing users to write and edit pieces, leaving it vulnerable to falsities. Proof of the site’s handicap is seen in an episode of The Colbert Report where the political satirist Stephen Colbert invited his viewers to fudge the facts about the actual number of endangered elephants in a Wiki article.

  Demonstrating how easy it was to transform absurd falsehoods into reality online, Colbert coined the phrase “wikiality,” and a new movement of fact vandalism, or reality adjusting, was born.
  Despite the risks of people blatantly lying about information for entertainment value or otherwise, Lowe disagreed that Wikipedia should be discounted as a credible source.”

Who’s Honoring Stephen Now – They Are!

• The survey: – BerkshireEagle.com: “A total of 40 students between the ages of 12 and 17 at Lee High School, St. Joseph’s High School in Pittsfield, Hoosac Valley High School in Cheshire and Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter School in Adams took part in an informal political survey by The Eagle. Here is the breakdown:

  9) Who is the best news presenter?

  Top three: Katie Couric, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert.
  Runners-up: Wolf Blitzer, Bill Maher, Matt Lauer and Larry David.”

• Lines of fact and fiction blurred – Belfast Telegraph: “If it’s truth you want, you must turn to comedy, where the great truth-tellers are Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. These are America’s real heroes and I will come back to them next week.”

Gratuitous Name Dropping – Other Colbert bits in the news

• Lamont to visit city, camp says – : “Lamont canceled an appearance at the same East Main Street restaurant just six days before the Aug. 8 Democratic primary election to appear on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. He sent his two daughters to Torrington on his behalf.”
• Event Listings -San Francisco Bay Guardian Online: “”FutureTense: Frederick Wiseman in Conversation with Michael Krasny” Jewish Community Center, 3200 California, Kanbar Hall, SF; 405-3753. 7:30pm, $12-15. Master documentarian Wiseman (Titicut Follies, High School I, High School II, and Belfast Maine) discusses how an editor’s choices affect a viewer’s sense of truth, or as Stephen Colbert would say, “truthiness.”"
• Daniel Ellsberg on the Colbert Report – openDemocracy.net: SPOILER ALERT – “Daniel Ellsberg is a foundation fellow at the Nuclear Peace Age Foundation, and word is he’ll be the guest on the Colbert Report show with Stephen Colbert next week on Thursday. It should be an interesting show.” I’ll post more on this as I hear of it.
• MIKE DUFFY’S TV TODAY: 13 new competing models promise boatloads of drama – Detroit Free Press: This contains the funniest description I have heard about “Stephen Colbert” in quite some time, so even though it’s just a preview I included it here – “The Colbert Report (11:30 p.m., Comedy Central). Chewing Scenery 101. The hambone’s connected to the jawbone when former Clinton White House spin doctor James Carville and faux troglodyte pundit Stephen Colbert cross conversational swords. Gentlemen, start your tongues flapping.”
• Colbert Rips American Tribalism – Truthdig.com: “Stephen Colbert offered this riff on racial tribalism in America, after learning that whites tend to live amongst other whites. Here’s a taste: “I’m colorblind. I don’t see race, folks, and I always thought my gated community was incredibly diverse. But, uh, today I asked around and it turns out that everyone at last week’s ‘smooth jazz and mayonnaise block party’ was in fact white.” “
• Helen Thomas, “The First Lady of the Press” – ABC7 Chicago: “Recently featured at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, in Ms. Magazine, The New York Times, on TV’s Bill Maher, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, The World Almanac has cited her as one of the “25 Most Influential Women in America”. “
• Take the Money and Run – The Motley Fool: “With that in mind, here are three questions and a Foolish suggestion to contemplate the next time a prospective sell decision keeps you up after The Colbert Report has signed off.”
• For Programmers Only: Neuros OSD Linux PVR That You Have To Program Yourself – CrunchGear: Man, even the title of this gives me a headache – “Nothing as sophisticated or polished as TiVo or Windows Media Center, this Neuros OSD Linux Media Recorder has users jumping in coding functionality, which eventually gets shared all other users. Ludicrous for someone who just wants to make sure they don’t miss the Colbert Report, but open source coders, contributers, and users are all over this type of thing.”
• POLITICS IS A FUNNY BUSINESS: Elected officials provide satirists with plenty of material – THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH (who appears to LOVE THE CAPSLOCK KEY): “These days, they are given plenty of ways to laugh at the gaffes, inanity and malapropisms of political leaders.

  Among the outlets: satirical troupes such as Second City and the Capitol Steps; “fake-news” TV series such as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report; online sites such as the Onion and the Borowitz Report; and the late-night lampoonery of hosts such as Jay Leno, David Letterman and Bill Maher. “

• Pork rinds and trinkets – Roanoke Times: Here’s a family who is raising their children RIGHT! It amazes me on a daily basis how much The Colbert Report influences society on even the smallest level:

  “As I turned the corner to head toward our neighborhood, the third-grader noted a new crop of election signs had been planted during the day.

  “We’re not voting for George Allen, are we?” She went on to say that even she knows better than to call people names or to take their homework and put her name on it. That latter was in reference to a clip she watched on “The Colbert Report” that showed Allen appropriating Sen. Dick Durbin’s amendment, but it wasn’t stealing because he changed the word “will” to “shall.” Or was it the other way? She can’t remember.

  Yes, I know I should be reported to the Department of Bad Parenting for allowing my child to get her “news” from Comedy Central. But, then again, our junior senator doesn’t make parenting any easier when I have to explain why he thinks it’s OK to claim authorship of someone else’s work or to be mean to people.”

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