Sullivan Gets Colbert Wrong

US Army photo/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/3617981668/">Army.mil</a>

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UPDATE: Sullivan responds.

Responding to Stephen Colbert’s interview with Wikileaks editor Julian Assange, Andrew Sullivan writes:

I’ve never seen Colbert so clearly become his own character on the question of impugning the honor of American soldiers. I don’t doubt that his experience with the troops affected him on this question.

This is really annoying. If Andrew really thinks Colbert is “becoming” his character on this issue, he misunderstands the show. The implication is that only someone like Colbert the character—i.e., someone who is ultraconservative to the point of parody—can instinctively jump to the defense of servicemembers. I beg to differ, as would Oliver Willis, and, I suspect, Colbert (the actor, not the character).

The moments on The Colbert Report when Colbert is most earnest are moments when you’re hearing the actor speaking. In other words, Colbert’s actually out of character when he’s defending the troops in the Assange interview. The actor’s real views are coming through, and not in the standard “parodying what a conservative might say” way that dominates most of the show. It wouldn’t make sense for Colbert to use his standard method in this situation: that only works when the liberal Colbert and his conservative character disagree. When it comes to the troops, the character and the actor are on the same page. You see the same earnestness when Colbert talks about Catholicism, and for the same reason. It’s pretty clear that Colbert the actor is a fairly devout Catholic, and his views on religion are different from those of secular liberals. Take this, from an interview with Time Out New York:

I love my Church, and I’m a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout. I was raised to believe that you could question the Church and still be a Catholic. What is worthy of satire is the misuse of religion for destructive or political gains. That’s totally different from the Word, the blood, the body and the Christ. His kingdom is not of this earth.

That sounds like Colbert’s religious beliefs are pretty sincerely felt—he teaches Sunday school, for heaven’s sake! Colbert’s sympathy for the troops is deeply felt, too: he was raising huge amounts of money for servicemembers well before his well-publicized “experience with the troops” in Iraq last summer. There are plenty of other (much crunchier) charities Colbert could have chosen to support, but he decided to give his money to the Yellow Ribbon fund, which helps injured servicemembers and their families. Colbert didn’t “become his character.” Quite the opposite. Not every liberal is an atheistic troop-hater. Most of us aren’t.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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