NPR's Quil Lawrence reported yesterday about Stephen Colbert's on-show antics as he broadcast live from Baghdad his unique brand of parody. Interestingly, Colbert's character from The Colbert Report--a "pretend" journalist--interviewed several high-level Iraqi politicians, and they received his ribbing well. Here's part of NPR's account:
The first guest was Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. Colbert asked him about progress toward democracy.
"We are making progress," Salih said. "We are moving along, thanks to the help of this wonderful U.S. military, who have come from afar to help us and give us a chance at building a decent nation here." The troops in the audience responded with loud cheers and applause.
"Please, sir," Colbert interrupted. "Let me tell you how this works: I do the pandering, OK."
Salih protested that he meant what he said. He is one of the few members of the Iraqi government who will publicly thank American troops for being in Iraq. Salih is from Iraq's ethnic Kurdish minority, which strongly supports the American occupation from its autonomous region in the north of the country.
"Now, sir, you're a Kurd," Colbert said. "You once advocated for a separate Kurdish state. Why is a united Iraq the best answer now?"
"Life is not about perfect solutions," Salih said. "Perhaps every Kurd would like to see an independent Kurdistan still. But we all have accepted — Kurds, Arabs, Shiites and Sunnis — that a democratic Iraq will provide all of these communities of Iraq with most of what they need."
"So you're kind of like Texas?" Colbert quipped. "You'd like to be your own state, but you see the reality on the ground."
"That's a good one," Salih said, laughing.
The next guest was the head of ground operations in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby. Again, Colbert demonstrated the growing power and influence of news parody. It was a rare instance in which Jacoby spoke to a journalist — or at least someone who plays a journalist on TV.
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