Did Stephen Colbert’s Trump slur go too far or way too far?
On Monday night, “The Late Show with
“Mr. President, I love your presidency, I call it ‘Disgrace The Nation.’ You’re not the POTUS, you’re the ‘gloat-us.’ You’re the glutton with the button. You’re a regular ‘Gorge Washington.’ You’re the ‘presi-dunce’ but you’re turning into a real ‘prick-tator,’” Colbert said at the end of his opening monologue on Monday night.
What triggered Colbert’s use of sharp language was a one-on-one interview Trump had with “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson that aired Sunday. In that interview, Trump mocks the host by referring to the news show as “Deface the Nation.”
Both the “Late Show” and “Face the Nation” are produced by CBS, a detail Colbert noted in his monologue, “When you insult one member of the CBS family, you insult us all.”
The monologue quickly drew backlash from conservatives such as former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who called it “crude” and “awful,” and Trump supporters such as Mike Cernovich, who cried hypocrisy because liberals who have blasted conservative voices for going too far did not object to Colbert’s reference to fellatio, a reference Cernovich called homophobic.
Even the Twitter account for the so-called “Reagan Battalion,” which has been critical of the Trump administration, shared a headline from the right-leaning site Red State, “Enraged Stephen Colbert Uses Homophobic Slur To Attack Trump Because Tolerance.”
The outrage also comes at a time when conservatives feel political correctness has run amok and feel the language liberals use is measured in a different standard. Conservatives like to point out that people like Fox News personality Jesse Watters or far-right author Ann Coulter are unfairly criticized even when their targets are minority groups.
Watters last October apologized for a segment in his show “Watters World” that many criticized as a racist portrayal of Chinese-Americans and immigrants. Coulter’s scheduled speech at UC Berkeley was cancelled last week amid people protesting her appearance and after sponsors pulled their support.
Colbert, on the other hand, was cheered and commended for hitting Trump back and standing for the free press, or as The Hollywood Reporter pointed out in a tweet, “in defense of journalists.”
Viewers are obviously split, and as of Tuesday it remained unclear whether Colbert would face additional criticism for his monologue. Would he face backlash similar to what Watters or Coulter faced? Pressure to back down? Or will Colbert enjoy the support of viewers in terms of ratings?
We’ll keep you posted when this story develops further, but in the meantime, chime in and share your thoughts — do you think Colbert went too far? Should he apologize? Should he deliver an encore?
Have some thoughts to share?
Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.
Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com
Twitter: @RunGomez
Read The Conversation on Flipboard.
