I remember when this study came out. I was in college and I couldn't believe it. So I asked some conservative classmates and sure enough, they thought Colbert was just the conservative Jon Stewart. One in particular became EXTREMELY mad at me about this study. He got a job in Texas in politics.
People talk about the decline of media literacy but it's been an issue for centuries. Some people really aren't operating on any high level
They thought Colbert's Colbert character was a conservative, for instance
I assume you didn’t ask this follow up, but I’m really curious, so just in case you did: given his running joke where bears were the number one threat to America on the Threatdown, did this guy think Colbert was sincerely warning America about bears on a nightly basis for roughly two straight years?
Idk, but where we went to college, bears actually were a threat. We had more than one lockdown because of them. Which was silly imo because they were just black bears. But I'm probably weird in that regard, because I wound up getting a 120 lb dog who I also consider small.
Well fair enough lol. Now I’m also curious if it ever came up among the show’s staff, so I just texted a friend who worked there for a while to ask. I’ll update here when he gets back to me
On one hand, I'm not really sure what they are supposed to do about it short of cancelling the show? On the other...maybe they should've just cancelled the show and gotten jobs doing something else? Maybe I'm biased, but I find it hard to fault satirists, particularly talented ones.
