Media Diary Entry 5

Recently, Colbert has talked a bit about Latinos, but there still has not been any sort of national news involving Latinos. This means that they have only been mentioned in asides, essentially while criticizing particular views. For this reason, I have chosen to group a couple different comments into one single blog. While talking about Rand Paul’s comments on possible extensions on tax breaks for the richest Americans in his “The Word” segment, Colbert explores the effects of the tax breaks on the poor and rich alike. In this piece, Colbert speaks on the subject, and satiric asides appear in text on the side of the screen. One of Colbert’s statements is, “if a poor family falls on hard times in the woods and nobody is around to care, did it really happen?” The aside was, “not if they’re Hispanic.”

In another episode, Colbert speaks of an event happening in Poland. When describing the Polish, he states why he loves them: pierogies are like empanadas that will not take our jobs.

Yet another time, when talking about TV pundit Lou Dobbs, Colbert mentions that he is going to look for greener pastures, “ideally not ones landscaped by Mexicans.”

Though this is nothing particularly new in my viewing of Colbert, I still find it interesting the way in which he is able to talk about things. Many people would not be able to attack racial topics and problems in the way that Colbert is able to, but the manner in which he does it is essentially above political criticism. Seeing as he so clearly rejects being politically correct, he does not have to worry about saying the “wrong” thing in a situation. I guess what I’m getting at is that it is refreshing to see somebody able to speak on the topics that people do not necessarily want to touch for fear of political criticisms.

Media Diary Entry 4

Seeing as the Arizona SB-1070 talk and the election banter has died down a little bit, Latinos seem to be less prevalent on the Colbert Report. This makes sense, seeing as Colbert does a satirical take on the day’s news events. If nobody else is talking about Latinos, Colbert doesn’t really have anything about Latinos to satirize. I guess that is sort of the danger in doing a news show—a satirical one at that. You had earlier mentioned that I could take a look at Colbert’s website, and compare it with that of other pundits. After browsing through Colbert’s site for a bit, I was able to find a fair amount of interviews and segments, either speaking to or of Latinos. Also, on his main page, is a link to Colbert’s testimony before Congress. I found that piece of satire particularly interesting and amusing. I feel that, just because he approached the situation with satire and humor does not mean that he takes the situation lightly. People seemed to be offended and upset with the way Colbert portrayed himself, yet at the same time I am not sure what else could have been expected with Colbert being brought before congress. A lot of satire with a little bit of sincerity. And if Congress wanted to have somebody more serious testify, maybe they should have gotten another public personality to volunteer to work on the farm for a day. I realize I just sort of rambled through this whole thing, and never really made it to comparing Colbert’s site to other pundits’ sites. I guess maybe I will do that next time if nothing pops up on Colbert.

Media Diary Entry 3

Colbert had another interesting bit about Latino voters on Nov 1st, the day before the midterm elections. He aired a commercial funded by “Latinos 4 Reform” that urged Latinos to not vote in the upcoming elections. He noted that a Latinos 4 Reform leader, an ex-Bush administration advisor, stated that it was because the Democrats had made too many empty promises. While he couldn’t encourage Latinos to vote for Sharon Angle, a person who had taken a “bordering on racist position” on immigration, he also did not want the Latinos to vote Democrat. As silly as the ad sounds, it was a legitimate political advertisement, and run on the basis that it was the only way Latinos would be able to demand any attention. Colbert noted that the ad was pulled from Univision before it could be aired because it had nothing to do with soccer. This is yet another occasion in which Colbert plays with the typical stereotypes of Latinos in order to create a laugh. He further jokes that the “Latinos 4 Reform” speaks the language of the Latinos saying, “cuidado, piso mojado” (caution, wet floor) and “muy peligroso chaco taco” (very dangerous chaco taco). But at the same time, airing the commercial shows some of the ridiculous things political parties are asking Latinos to do – How would not voting function to make people recognize Latinos? In some ways, maybe; however, it does not seem to be the most effective way to gain status within the country. I think the point Colbert is trying to make is that people are trying to manipulate the Latino vote in any way because the are a large demographic, but it has gotten a little bit ridiculous.

Media Diary Entry 2

In Colbert’s show on Oct 28, he had a special piece on the show entitled the “Fear for All” to further advertise his “March to Keep Fear Alive.” This 5-minute piece, again, included several stereotypical people that could instill fear into the hearts of Americans. The vice-president of the Farm workers union, a Mexican man, represented the Latino stereotype. Colbert proceeded to ask him when he sneaked into the country, and when he was going to leave. He also made the blanket statement that Mexicans are clearly here to take the jobs of the US citizens. Colbert is playing off of the American stereotype that all Mexicans have sneaked into America, and it was for the sole purpose of stealing American jobs. He further asks if Mexicans feel emotion and pain, and notes that he should be scared when Mexicans take over because they will punish him for the things people like him have said. These ideas work to emphasize many of the fears Americans have of Mexicans, and also gives the sense that sometimes people lose the sense that Mexicans / Latinos actually are people. It can be easy to refer to “them” as a group and easily remove the humanity involved. It also seems to play on the idea that Mexicans or Latinos may be on some sort of vendetta to take over and avenge what has happened in the past. Again in this piece, I feel like Colbert is not trying to drum up support form Latinos, but instead from people that may be willing to take a stand against the stereotypes and fears that many Americans have, and has been so often portrayed by politicians and in the media.

Media Diary Entry 1

Watching the Colbert Report does not always yield some sort of image of Latinos, and what we do see is, surprisingly, relatively sparse. It is obvious that he is not going to spend 30 minutes talking about Latinos, but I guess I expected a little more with all the talk of immigration lately. But this is not to say that what images we see are not interesting. The first time that I watched it for the class, Colbert did not at all touch on Latinos. However, there was a short commercial for his much-publicized “Rally to Restore Fear.” In this promo, Colbert was depicting various things that Americans are scared of. Among the images of homosexuals, Muslims, and various other images was a short clip of a Latino and Uncle Sam dancing together. I feel like this short little 15-second clip was able to make a huge social commentary on the status of America. I found it interesting that such a short little tidbit was able to so concisely illustrate many of the fears that Americans have. Many people simply do not want to see Latinos and the US government getting along – they do not want us to have anything to do with “them.” While it is a little difficult to pin down Colbert’s beliefs seeing as he is a comedian/pundit, it isn’t hard to pick up on his general beliefs. The impressively blunt satire of Colbert’s advertisement, while not necessarily courting Latinos, works to show that he is probably for immigrant rights, and dispelling the stigma against Latinos. Now, I’m pretty sure Colbert is catering to the 20/30-something educated male that has become disillusioned with politics or annoyed with the status quo of political rhetoric. Or maybe that’s just me. But either way, I don’t think he is working to pull in the Latino audience. Instead, I think he is playing on stereotypes for a laugh, as well as trying to call on people to look at how absurd their stereotypes might be.