In an interview Sunday morning with David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Stephen Colbert talked about satire and journalism:
Satire is parody with a point. … I always have a point of view. I care about the news. … We do 161 shows a year and you can’t do that unless, I guess, you care a little about what you’re talking about. Or, I couldn’t. … So, I’m interested in the news. And so people often think that I’m an ideologue or that I have a political intent. I think that people — When Jon [Stewart] and I did the Rally [to Restore Sanity] two years ago, they thought that had a political intent. But I comment on things that are in the news. I don’t imagine that I’m a newsman. I really admire newsmen, I really enjoy good news.
…I try to put myself in the news or to embody the thing. Jon does like what’s called pure deconstruction, where he picks apart what’s happening in the day’s news and he kind of lays it out for you, like a cadaver. … But I falsely reconstruct the news.
Earlier, in character, Colbert said, “I don’t really watch the news so much. I come in around 6:30 and then I just say the opposite of whatever Rachel Maddow said the night before.”
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