Here is a direct link to the YouTube for those who can't see the video below Stephen Colbert & his SuperPac
Lisa De Moraes writes in Study: Stephen Colbert More Effective Than Journalists At Explaining Campaign Financing During Last Election Cycle
A new report warns just how much this country stands to lose when Stephen Colbert shutters his Comedy Central late-night show to take over for David Letterman at CBS. According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, viewers of The Colbert Report who watched Colbert set up a super PAC and 501(c)(4) organization during the last presidential election cycle were better informed about campaign financing and the role of money in politics than viewers of actual news channels and other, actual-news shows.
“It’s the first study actually showing that Colbert is doing a better job than other news sources at teaching people about campaign financing,” crowed Bruce W. Hardy, lead author of the study and a senior researcher at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. “Consistently, we found that Colbert did better than every other news source we included in our model.”
Watching The Colbert Report not only increased people’s perceptions that they knew more about political financing, but significantly increased their actual knowledge, and did so at a greater rate than other news sources, the study found. Reading daily newspapers, listening to talk radio, and watching Fox News Channel increased knowledge about super PACs and 501(c)(4)s — but “to a lesser degree,” the study concluded.
The study was based on a phone survey of 1,232 adults and compared viewers of Colbert, against those who watched CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and broadcast nightly news.
Hardy believes the reason is that Colbert took the audience through the process of setting up his own super PAC over a series of episodes using humor and satire, and most crucially an "active participant," first person narrative. Colbert set up a 501(c)(4) "shell corporation" called “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.”
Colbert said, “Clearly, (c)(4)s have created an unprecedented, unaccountable, untraceable cash tsunami that will infect every corner of the next election. And I feel like an idiot for not having one.”
Stephen Colbert is going to take over the time slot of David Letterman, at CBS, when Letterman retires next year, and says he will leave his satire Comedy Central character behind. Which I understand also means people will have to start pronouncing his last name with a hard "t" rather than the fanciful silent "t."
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