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Networks Still Don't Get Colbert

  • Ad Age, Friday, July 28, 2006 12:31 PM
Those who watch Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" take the show's interviews for what they are, reports Ad Age--bits that poke fun at conventional news interviews. But host Stephen Colbert, who has adopted a persona that mocks real-life TV journalists, "seems to have a knack for being misunderstood by the very folks he is skewering." A recent segment caught the attention of some TV newscasters when Rep. Robert Wexler [D.-Fla.] talked to Colbert in a humorous vein about oil drilling off the coast of Florida, where U.S. troops should be redeployed, and what it would take for him to lose an unopposed election in November. After coaching, Colbert got Wexler to say, "I enjoy cocaine because it is a fun thing to do." Fox News was first to get suckered, running it as a news item--followed by NBC's "The Today Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America," which asked why politicians would ever agree to appear on Colbert's show.

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