Stephen Colbert’s cowardly lip service enables online mobs

Published August 30, 2018 1:30am ET



Rolling Stone published a long, political interview with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday that will likely be reduced to his comments about President Trump in subsequent coverage. Indeed, the conversation dwells on Trump at length, and Colbert was characteristically eager to share his thoughts. But the comedian made an interesting observation about his own industry over the course of the interview as well.

Reflecting on the 2014 social media campaign to cancel his Comedy Central show, Colbert remembered thinking almost immediately that his career had ended. In response to Dan Snyder creating the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, Colbert joked, “I am willing to show the Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.” After the network tweeted that line out, #cancelcolbert started to spread on social media.

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