What to think of Stephen Colbert

 I've hardly ever watched Stephen Colbert's late night show, I'd seen him a few more times as the satirical character on Jon Stewart's show.  I only watched such things while staying with my sister and brother in law, who watched all the well known programs on CNN, HBO, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC.  I visited them for a week every year or two.  But after awhile, I got so pissed with such programs they never played them for me anymore, watching them behind closed doors if at all so as not to disturb me.

I got particularly upset after seeing how MSNBC personalities like Rachel Maddow were so anti-Bernie.  And then, right after the revelation of how the DNC had suppressed Bernie was made public, the very next day the entire dialog flipped to how Russia was influencing the election, based on claims which have been thoroughly debunked but Democrats refuse to let go of them.  This accomplished several things in one go.  And leading the pack with the new fabricated topic (which would dominate the airwaves of the most networks (except Fox) media (aka 'liberal' media) were just those stations and personalities.  It made me sick to my stomach.

To me it was all about changing the dialog from the way Bernie had been sidelined by the DNC, and further intimating that Bernie was a Russian Useful Idiot who we narrowly avoided.  (Many now think Bernie could have defeated Trump.  But to the DNC and Rachel Maddow, it seems, that was preferable to having Bernie win.)

So at my sister's house for a few years, I watched all the usual personalities on the late night shows.  And they all made me sick.   

As far as Maher, I hated him from the first time I saw him in 1997 where he piled on the baseless allegations combined with innuendos against Woody Allen.*  Even my hosts were miffed.  And it went down, down, and down from there.  Maher is your basic know nothing neocon neoliberal smart ass who somehow pretends he leans left.  (*The accusations were rightfully thrown out of court.  And certainly there was absolutely nothing wrong with Allen's legal marriage to the grown up Soon-Yi Previn or a license would never have been granted.  Maher is no expert on marriage or anything else.)

All the late night anchors and perennial guests made me angry as hell.  With one exception.  That was Stephen Colbert.  He was very talented in avoiding all the cringy sermons and just hitting the jugulars.  I was sure that he was hired to do just that, within the bounds of 'liberal' corporate media like CBS.

I had remembered him from the right wing character he also played as Stephen Colbert.  He did it perfectly, better than most real right wing people as he'd maintain the farce to the bitter end without giving some lame excuse as often real right wingers do because they haven't thought it all out yet.  Or he'd fold with a smile at just the right moment.  Talent.

It was hard to get used to Colbert as host, but he was the one late night host I felt I could bear.  As I might do, he went for the big picture, not today's gotchas from partisans.  So he looked at Trump as Trump, not so much Russian Stooge or any of the partisan claims.  Of course that was too much for MAGA, so it's not surprising it ultimately led to...his show being ended, but it had a long incredible run.

None of which I ever watched by myself except the very last show, and it was great.

Now I see endless condemnations of Colbert not only from MAGA but from people I follow, fellow leftists.  He is castigated for his lack of 'confrontation' of such people as Kissinger.

But I see this in the context of his network CBS.  What Colbert did, dance around Kissinger's office, was far more entertaining and even challenging than anything done by the notably imperially sychophantic Face the Nation, who'd go after "important things" which were often as often as not rooted in nonsense, like the alleged rapes and baby killings** on October 7.

Colbert was our Court Jester.  And he did that job very well, as far as I have seen (which is 0.001%).  If he did not meet with Kissinger (btw, one of Hillary Clinton's best friends, Kissinger helped make Hillary into a Washington wonder girl just out of college) he wouldn't be suited for that job.

So I praise Colbert.  And he's the one of the very few talk show hosts I could have watched (I recall I liked Dick Cavett back in the day, not to mention Bill Moyers--one of my all time favorites).  But it may have been just as fine not to watch Colbert either.  I don't feel like I missed anything important, except his last show which I couldn't miss.  To do his job as well as he did, and he may not be the most honorable or knowledgable person in the world, but he was obviously a comedic genius, and a very sensitive one too, to be that good and still be on Big Network TV four times a week for eleven years, and occasionally even barb the President and other top dogs, so hard working too. 

He was not as great a comedian as, say, George Carlin, but George Carlin was only ever a talk show guest (most famously, 130 times with Johnny Carson, who was so "dumb" (his act) as to never be watchable even with smart ass Carlin as guest).  Carlin was no where near as sensitive and thoughtful as Colbert.  No big network TV would ever have someone as potentially upsetting (to some) as George Carlin.

(**No personal testimonies, videos, or hard evidence of rapes despite vast searching and endless propaganda to the contrary.  Only one baby was killed, "by accident".  I see the "mass rapes" claim debunked by everyone I follow.  Including Tony Greenstein and zeiSquirrel. And don't get me started on the official propaganda of "Russian atrocities" which are most often falsely labeled, Consortium News is an excellent source on this.  But that's all the sort of nonsense your mind will be filled with on the 'serious' broadcast network so-called news programs, which might as well have been sponsored by Raytheon, Grumman, and McDonnellDouglass.  They need to the most advertising money to exist, and are heavily monitored and controlled by the powers that be. It's better to watch their comedy shows, at least the best ones, if you can stand them.  Almost beyond belief, one of the best ever comedy shows, The Simpsons, was on Fox, and the even more iconoclastic Futurama started on Fox.)