Just noticed this story over at The Swamp (the Chicago Tribune‘s “Washington Bureau” blog); it relates to the segment from Tuesday when Stephen zinged the Tribune for questioning Obama’s nearly 40-year old memory. It sounds like the poster found Stephen’s take on it to be funny, but I got the impression that not everyone at the Tribune agreed (they sound a little defensive, to my mind). What do you think?
Colbert zings Chicago Tribune for Obama story
Posted by Frank James at 7:00 am CDTStephen Colbert, the comic genius from Comedy Central, did a very funny riff on the Sen. Barack Obama Life/Ebony/race story which I didn’t see in real time earlier this week. A colleague pointed it out to me.
As you’ll recall, Democratic presidential candidate Obama said in his autobiography he had a memorable racial awakening at age nine when he saw a story in Life magazine about a self-hating black man who had done his best to bleach his skin white.
After Chicago Tribune reporters did some fact-checking and failed to find that issue of Life, Obama said maybe it was Ebony. But no evidence of such a story could be found in that magazine’s archives either.
Colbert zings the Tribune and other news outlets that followed its lead for making too much of a nearly 40-year-old memory. He mentions that Esquire actually appears to have run such a story and that may be what Obama remembered seeing. For the record, a Tribune editor said this of the Esquire theory: “We already tracked that one down a few weeks ago. It’s not even close to what Obama cites in his book.”
I post this for others who haven’t seen it. Enjoy. I think it’s hilarious.
Missed this segment? Watch it here:
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