Obama "Hijacks" The Colbert Report

CNN reports:

Barack Obama may be the President of the United States, but for a few minutes on Monday, he was also Stephen Colbert, outgoing host of "The Colbert Report." Obama sat down for an interview with Colbert in Washington -- his third appearance on the show -- and surprised the host by taking over the taping for a segment. "You've been taking a lot of shots at my job, I've decided to take a shot at yours," Obama said before taking over for Colbert on "The Word," a segment where Colbert (in this case, Obama) says a line or two before a witty word or phrases flashes to the right. "How hard can this be? I am just going to say whatever you were about to say." From there, Obama launched into a monologue about Obamacare, congressional Republicans and his last two years in office.

Pew Ranks "Trusted" News Outlets

From the Pew Research report:

Those with consistently conservative political values are oriented around a single outlet—Fox News—to a much greater degree than those in any other ideological group: Nearly half (47%) of those who are consistently conservative name Fox News as their main source for government and political news. Far fewer choose any other single source: Local radio ranks second, named by 11%, with no other individual source named by more than 5% of consistent conservatives. Those with mostly conservative views also gravitate strongly toward Fox News – 31% name it as their main source, several times the share who name the next most popular sources, including CNN (9%), local television (6%) and radio (6%) and Yahoo News (6%).

On the left of the political spectrum, no single outlet predominates. Among consistent liberals, CNN (15%), NPR (13%), MSNBC (12%) and the New York Times (10%) all rank near the top of the list. CNN is named by just 20% of those with mostly liberal views, but still tops their list, followed by local television (11%) and NPR (9%). Both MSNBC and Fox News are mentioned by 5% of those who are mostly liberal. Those in other ideological groups name the New York Times, NPR and MSNBC less frequently as top news sources.

Respondents with a roughly equal mix of liberal and conservative values also have a diffuse mix of news providers. CNN (20%) and local television (16%) are the most frequently-named top sources, with a long list of other news sources named by fewer than one-in-ten. Fox News (8%) is among the most-named sources in this “long tail,” along with Yahoo News (7%) and Google News (6%), both of which primarily aggregate and highlight news produced by other outlets.

For the record, I highly trust last place Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner.

Colbert: "Self-Professed" Gays Should Send Rep. Steve King Proof Of Gayness

Mediaite recaps last night's Stephen Colbert show:

This past weekend, King told local TV station WHO-TV that these “self-professed” gays could just as easily be straight people “setting up a case” against a business that tries to discriminate them. Colbert recounted that familiar scenario in which someone pretends to come out to their family, then pretends to fall in love, then pretends to get engaged, just so they can sue their potential florist at the last minute. “As Steve King knows, even if gays do exist, it’s nearly impossible to prove it,” Colbert said. That’s why he’s asking gays from around the country to “send photos and/or videos to Steve King, proving that you are gay.” He went ahead and provided to address on screen to make it that much easier for everyone. “Be sure to label your envelope campaign contributions, so you know that he’ll read it,” Colbert added.

Watch the video at the link.

Colbert Report Suspended

Twitter is buzzing with curiosity over the abrupt and as yet unexplained suspension of the Stephen Colbert Report by Comedy Central.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, the show will air repeat episodes on Wednesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 16,” Comedy Central Senior VP for Communications Steve Albani told POLITICO. Albani would not comment on the specific reasons for the suspension, saying Comedy Central was “not providing any additional details at this time.” According to Third Beat Magazine, which covers comedy, the Colbert Report’s audience received a notification email announcing the cancellation of live taping.

Seems like if this was a health issue, they'd say so.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has the story.

Stephen Colbert has suspended production of his satirical comedy show temporarily because of an emergency in Mr. Colbert's family, according to people familiar with the show. "The Colbert Report" is expected to resume production soon, perhaps as early as next week, the people added. Comedy Central, the Viacom Inc. network that airs the show, had stoked speculation about the fate of "The Colbert Report" when it issued a cryptic statement canceling the tapings of the show scheduled for the remainder of this week.

Colbert Report On Dr. George Rekers

With a screenshot of JMG, but no mention. Oh, well!

Solmonese On Colbert, Part 2

Not as laugh-out-loud funny as Part 1, but some cute bits.

Equal Rights & Appletinis

HRC head Joe Solmonese appeared on The Colbert Report last night and played "straight" man to Steve Colbert's usual convolutedly hilarious logic. Here's Part 1 of Solmonese's bit.

Part 2 will air tonight.