Yesterday Leftovers For 4/13/10: Literally The Most Uncomfortable Interview For Colbert Ever (Updated)
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Julian Assange | ||||
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Last night produced a truly eye-popping moment in news television last night.
Unsurprisingly, it came from "The Colbert Report", because no one outside of Olbermann, Maddow, and Stewart would do the interview that transpired last night in the corporate media.
Surprisingly though, that eye popping moment had to deal with the usually euphoric host having an uncommon moment of not acting his humorous parodic way. Instead, his interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange brought out a serious side of him, trying to understand his interviewee in this standout secession.
For the beginning of the interview, the usual snark and classic sarcasm was evident, especially when Colbert had his producers blurr his face instead of Assange. The fun times then suddenly came to a halt.
I have to say that I agree with Greg Mitchell on this point, as it clearly appeared that Colbert was a little uneasy doing this interview and displayed some contrasting personality traits of his last night.
But then Colbert, uncharacteristically, dropped his faux outrage and really went after his guest for terming the video "Collateral Murder," obviously trying to stick up for the troops after his trip to Iraq and other supportive measures. He made a couple of good points but also suggested, in a low moment, that Assange didn't know what he was talking about because he had not served in the military himself. There were no chuckles from the host at that point--and the audience clearly did not know how to react.I don't agree with the segment ending on a humorous note however. Colbert and the audience were clearly still taken aback by the host's reaction to the telling points made by the obviously intrepid Assange.
Colbert also charged that the Assange had edited out the fact that there was a "firefight" nearby. Assange cooly called this a lie, and said that classified documents showed no such thing. This seemed to set Stephen back a bit.
Then the segment ended on the usual humorous note.
It really did appear that Colbert had one rare shill moment, aggressively defending the military and going hard at Assange's labeling of the video "Collateral Damage".
But the WikiLeak man showed the placidity and candor that have made him and his fellow co-horts instant world truthtellers. And to get that label of recognition in these seemingly opaque times is without a doubt, an amazing accomplishment.
No question that this article is an endorsement of watching this interview if you haven't seen it yet.
(Note: As Mitchell mentioned in his post, Colbert said the whole interview would be placed on their website. But at last check, that has not happened yet.)
(Note 2: The Full version is now up:)
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Exclusives - Julian Assange Unedited Interview | ||||
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