Colbert Spends Entire Report Firing Back at Tweet Uproar

He won't cancel his show, but he did delete the @ColbertReport Twitter account
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 1, 2014 7:28 AM CDT
Colbert Spends Entire Report Firing Back at Tweet Uproar
This Sept. 8, 2010, publicity photo released by Comedy Central shows host Stephen Colbert appears on "The Colbert Report," in New York.   (AP Photo/Comedy Central, Scott Gries)

Stephen Colbert certainly took the #CancelColbert controversy seriously: He devoted last night's entire Colbert Report to discussing it. "To recap: A web editor I've never met posts a tweet in my name on an account I don't control, outrages a hashtag activist, and the news media get 72 hours of content. The system worked," he said. "Who would have thought a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstandings?" He went on to insist that he's not racist, but that to compromise with those who think that he is, he is willing to shut down not his show but the "charity" that got people so upset in the first place: "The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever."

"I don't even see race," Colbert insisted. "Not even my own. People tell me I'm white, and I believe them because I just devoted six minutes to explaining how I'm not a racist. And that is about the whitest thing you can do." He went on to apologize ... "for caring enough to try to bridge a cultural divide with my foundation. I thought we were ready. If I have a fault, it's that I believed in the American people too much." And then he brought on Twitter co-founder Biz Stone as his guest, and together, the two blew up the @ColbertReport account that sent out the controversial tweet. (The Hollywood Reporter notes that the account really has been deleted.) "That ends that controversy," Colbert concluded. "I just pray that no one ever tweets about the time I said Rosa Parks was overrated [or] Hitler had some good ideas ... 'cause man, that sounds pretty bad out of context." Get caught up on the controversy here, or watch last night's episode here. (More Stephen Colbert stories.)

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