Colbert ribs Iraqi officials on show from Baghdad

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.

Everybody knows his name...

I wrote a story on my laptop about a pleasant bartender at the Ontario International Airport "Applebee's" restaurant while waiting for a plane last week. [So that my CBU colleagues don't freak out: no, I wasn't drinking in a bar, I was there for coffee in the a.m., but happened to sit near the bar since the restaurant and bar were proximate!]

This morning, I sent the story about "Doyle" to Jennifer Dean at the Press-Enterprise newspaper, who writes and maintains a blog for moms/families in addition to her reporting duties as a feature reporter. She posted it this afternoon:

http://blogs.pe.com/moms/2009/06/riverside-resident-cheers-airp.html

[Thanks, Doyle, and Jennifer!]

L. Gann going places!

I love this story! I have been getting calls for over a year from a persistent young representative for Meltwater, which offers media distribution and monitoring services online. This rep, Lawrence Gann, effectively outsold my current vendor, and we moved our services to his firm last week. So, the young Lawrence comes to CBU to train me and my ITS colleague on the use of the service and its features, and as we are chatting over lunch following the training he mentions he attended the American Idol finale party at Fox.

Lawrence had not watched ANY American Idol segments this season, and as he was sitting with executives from FOX, Chris Allen walks over and Lawrence starts chatting with him. Lawrence introduces himself first, being the friendly, confident sort. Upon introducing himself, Lawrence hears laughter from behind him as he says something to the effect of "I'm Lawrence Gann...and you are...?"

The Fox guys let Lawrence know that he is shaking hands with this year's AI winner. Chris Allen laughs, too, and says, "I guess you didn't watch the show?" Lawrence admits that he hadn't, he just came to the party at the invitation of his Fox pals.

Lawrence then had his photo made with Chris, which he sent me a copy of and I am posting here.

This kid (Lawrence) is going places!

Not everyone under 30 is glued to the tv, afterall!

I love this story! I have been getting calls for over a year from a persistent young representative for Meltwater, which offers media distribution and monitoring services online. This rep, Lawrence Gann, effectively outsold my current vendor, and we moved our services to his firm last week. So, the young Lawrence comes to CBU to train me and my ITS colleague on the use of the service and its features, and as we are chatting over lunch following the training he mentions he attended the American Idol finale party at Fox.

Lawrence had not watched ANY American Idol segments this season, and as he was sitting with executives from FOX, Chris Allen walks over and Lawrence starts chatting with him. Lawrence introduces himself first, being the friendly, confident sort. Upon introducing himself, Lawrence hears laughter from behind him as he says something to the effect of "I'm Lawrence Gann...and you are...?"

The Fox guys let Lawrence know that he is shaking hands with this year's AI winner. Chris Allen laughs, too, and says, "I guess you didn't watch the show?" Lawrence admits that he hadn't, he just came to the party at the invitation of his Fox pals.

Lawrence then had his photo made with Chris, which he sent me a copy of and I am posting here.

This kid (Lawrence) is going places!