Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert largely kept his liberal politics in check on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, at least in the Tuesday night debut, not producing the highly political program conservatives feared would emerge after Colbert rid himself of the conservative buffoon act he offered on Comedy Central. Overall, a much sillier and artificial program than David Letterman’s old show.

In a report for Tuesday’s CBS This Morning promoting liberal comedian Stephen Colbert’s debut as host of The Late Show, correspondent Vladimir Duthiers proclaimed: “Colbert had that distinctive voice. His character on The Colbert Report, also named Stephen Colbert, was, in his words, ‘a poorly formed high-status idiot’....It was a parody of a right-wing political pundit, funny to many, but not…

One year ago, a British newspaper published a list of President Obama’s ten favorite television shows (the top three, in reverse order: Breaking Bad, The Wire, and M*A*S*H). Not on the list was The Daily Show, on which Obama guested yet again this past Tuesday, but Penn State's Sophia McClennen thinks that if Obama had been more of a TDS fan, he long ago would have realized how irrational his…

Stephen Colbert celebrated the Supreme Court decision mandating gay marriage in a YouTube video aimed at his natural audience: secular liberal Democrats. (Forget all that hooey about “devoutly Catholic” Colbert. You can’t be that and be a CBS star....or anywhere else in the media elite.) "June Is a Lovely Month for a Wedding" was the video's title. “Congratulations, gays!” he declared. “You now…

TV and movie producers rarely focus on Catholic priests in their plots, let alone use them as central characters, as in The Father Dowling Mysteries or Father Murphy in the 1980s. Maybe that’s a good thing, because when Catholic priests are part of the plot these days, there is an unmistakable odor of aggression -- mocking, vilifying, and disparaging not just Catholic priests, but the priesthood…

Sonia Saraiya suggests that Stewart “is one of the most influential political figures of our era” and claims that “as difficult as it has been to advance a progressive agenda over the last 16 years, it would likely have been impossible without Stewart’s ability to connect to millions of viewers and remind them that they weren’t alone in hoping for something better.”

Elias Isquith criticizes the “shallowness of Stewart’s politics” and “his tendency to fall prey to the trap of blaming 'both sides.'" Isquith declares that “if liberals want to see more of the kind of direct action that’s characterized the Occupy Wall Street and #blacklivesmatter movements…they’re going to have to embrace a political vision that has grown beyond the idiosyncratic limitations of…

Leslie Savan writes that “as a character, and not merely a critic, of the right, [Stephen] Colbert held a unique key to the riddle of modern conservatism: How do they keep getting away with it? Why have so many conservatives turned into such small-minded haters and deniers of science, of reality?”

Just how liberal is fake conservative Stephen Colbert? Politico’s Hadas Gold reports the Democrats are raising money off his retirement from Comedy Central. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is asking people to sign a 'Thank you' card. "After nine great years, the Colbert Report is going off the air," the email reads. "Thank you Stephen Colbert for an amazing ride!"

"Not once can I remember him being truly mean" when doing his shtick, Hardball host Chris Matthews gushed of Stephen Colbert during the "Let Me Finish" closing commentary for his December 18 program. Matthews was effusive in praise as he noted Thursday night would see the final edition of The Colbert Report before the comedian takes over the reins at CBS's Late Show from David Letterman. Does…

Liberals are going into deep mourning over the television death of Stephen Colbert, Very Badly Disguised Liberal. They think this is an "unparalleled achievement." In Wednesday's paper, TV writer Bill Carter of The New York Times lined up all of Colbert’s competitors to call him a genius for disparaging conservatives with so much panache. “For nine years, Stephen Colbert has relentlessly…

During Monday night's edition of The Colbert Report on the Comedy Central cable channel, the faux conservative host celebrated the fact that “no one’s going to pay me to watch” the host of The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel “anymore, so f**k that noise!” That comment was made during the final edition of a segment entitled “Formidable Opponent,” in which the blue-tied version of Colbert…

Penn State’s Sophia McClennen praises Colbert for “remind[ing] us that you could care about your nation and simultaneously find American exceptionalism disturbing” and comments that conservatives have “controlled the idea of patriotism for so long that it is easy to forget that there is no logical reason to think that Rachel Maddow loves her country any less than Glenn Beck.”

On Monday night, President Obama appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report for a friendly interview with the liberal comedian, and Tuesday morning the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks predictably promoted the president’s late night stop. CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King hyped how Obama “was a guest on Comedy Central Colbert Report last night. It was his first visit to the show as…