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File:Colbert-truthiness.jpg
Stephen Colbert announces that "The Wørd" of the night is truthiness, during the premiere episode of The Colbert Report.

Truthiness is a term that television comedian Stephen Colbert popularized in 2005 when he used it to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts.[1] Colbert popularized this definition of the word during the inaugural episode (October 17, 2005) of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called "The Wørd". It was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster.[2][3]

By using the term as part of his satirical routine, Colbert sought to criticize the use of "truthiness" as an appeal to emotion and tool of rhetoric in contemporary socio-political discourse.[4] He particularly applied it to U.S. President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and decision to invade Iraq in 2003.[5] Colbert later ascribed truthiness to other institutions and organizations, such as Wikipedia.[6]

Origin of the term

Stephen Colbert came up with his idea of truthiness just moments before filming the premiere episode of The Colbert Report on October 17, 2005.[7] He introduced his definition in the first segment of the episode, in the following monologue:[5]

I will speak to you in plain, simple English. And that brings us to tonight's word: 'truthiness.' Now I'm sure some of the 'word police,' the 'wordinistas' over at Webster's are gonna say, 'hey, that's not a word'. Well, anyone who knows me knows I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books.

I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. 'Cause face it, folks; we are a divided nation. Not between Democrats and Republicans, or conservatives and liberals, or tops and bottoms. No, we are divided between those who think with their head, and those who know with their heart.

Consider Harriet Miers. If you 'think' about Harriet Miers, of course her nomination's absurd. But the president didn't say he 'thought' about his selection. He said this:

(video clip of President Bush:) 'I know her heart.'

Notice how he said nothing about her brain? He didn't have to. He feels the truth about Harriet Miers.

And what about Iraq? If you think about it, maybe there are a few missing pieces to the rationale for war. But doesn't taking Saddam out feel like the right thing?

Colbert gave an out-of-character interview with The Onion's A.V. Club, in which he responded to the question, "What's your take on the 'truthiness' imbroglio that's tearing our country apart?" by elaborating on the critique he intended to convey with the word truthiness:[4]

Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don't mean the argument over who came up with the word...

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?...

Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.

Colbert had unknowingly popularized the archaic word truthiness,[7] which has a history in literature and appears in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as a derivation of truthy, and is indicated as rare or dialectal. Colbert's definition of the word was a novel invention, because the OED defines it as a variation of straightforward truthfulness. The prior existence of the word was brought to public attention by linguist and OED consultant Benjamin Zimmer.[8][9]

Rapid adoption by news media

After Colbert's usage of the term "truthiness", it quickly became widely used and recognized. Within a few months of its introduction by Colbert, "Truthiness" was discussed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Editor & Publisher, Salon, The Huffington Post, and Chicago Reader, and on ABC's Nightline, CBS's 60 Minutes, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. The February 13, 2006, issue of Newsweek magazine featured an article on The Colbert Report titled "The Truthiness Teller".[7] It recounted the career of the word truthiness since its popularization by Colbert.

Television news coverage

Six days after Colbert introduced truthiness, CNN's Reliable Sources featured a discussion of The Colbert Report by host Howard Kurtz, who played a clip of Colbert mentioning truthiness.[10]

On the same day, ABC's Nightline also reported on truthiness, prompting Colbert to respond by saying: "You know what was missing from that piece? Me. Stephen Colbert. But I'm not surprised. Nightline's on opposite me…"

The New York Times coverage

In its October 25, 2005 issue, eight days after the premiere episode of the Report, The New York Times ran its third article on The Colbert Report, penned by Alessandra Stanley and titled "Bringing Out the Absurdity of the News".[11] The article specifically discussed the segment on truthiness, although the Times misreported the word as trustiness. In its November 1, 2005 issue, the Times ran a correction clarifying that the Wørd had been truthiness, not trustiness. On the next episode of the Report, Colbert took the Times to task for the error, pointing out, albeit incorrectly, that trustiness is "not even a word".[12]

In its December 25, 2005 issue, the Times again discussed truthiness, this time as one of nine words that had captured the year's zeitgeist, in an article titled "2005: In a Word; Truthiness" by Jacques Steinberg. In crediting truthiness, Steinberg said, "the pundit who probably drew the most attention in 2005 was only playing one on TV: Stephen Colbert".[13]

In the January 22, 2006 issue, columnist Frank Rich used the term truthiness seven times, with credit to Colbert, in a column titled "Truthiness 101: From Frey to Alito", to discuss Republican portrayals of several issues (including the Samuel Alito nomination, Katrina response, and Jack Murtha's wartime record). Rich emphasized the extent to which the word truthiness had quickly become a cultural fixture, writing, "The mock Comedy Central pundit Stephen Colbert's slinging of the word 'truthiness' caught on instantaneously last year precisely because we live in the age of truthiness." Editor & Publisher magazine reported on Rich's use of truthiness in his column, saying he "tackled the growing trend to 'truthiness,' as opposed to truth, in the U.S.".[14]

The January 30, 2006 issue of the Times included an article titled "How Oprahness Trumped Truthiness" by David Carr, although the article itself did not refer to truthiness. Because the editors write the headlines in all stories for the Times, the truthiness reference must have been added by the editors to describe the theme of Carr's article.[15]

The New York Times published two letters on the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner, where Stephen Colbert was the featured guest, in its May 3, 2006 edition, under the headline "Truthiness and Power".[16]

Widespread recognition

Usage of "truthiness" continued to proliferate in media, politics, and public consciousness. On January 5, 2006, etymology professor Anatoly Liberman began an hour-long program on public radio by discussing truthiness and predicting that it would be included in dictionaries in the next year or two.[17] His prediction seemed to be on track when, the next day, the American Dialect Society announced that "truthiness" was its 2005 Word of the Year, and the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary featured truthiness as its Word of the Week a few weeks later.[18] Truthiness was also selected by The New York Times as one of nine words that captured the spirit of 2005. Global Language Monitor, which tracks trends in languages, named truthiness the top television buzzword of 2006, and another term Colbert coined with reference to truthiness, wikiality, as another of the top ten television buzzwords of 2006, the first time two words from the same show have made the list.[19][20]

On January 1, 2007, Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan released its annual list of words it wants banned from the English language. "Truthiness" was among them, along with other words like "awesome" and celebrity couple nicknames like "Brangelina" and "TomKat". In response, on January 8, 2007 Colbert stated that Lake Superior State University was an attention seeking second-tier state school.

American Dialect Society's Word of the Year

On January 6, 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that truthiness was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year.[2] The Society described its rationale as follows:

In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. First heard on The Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on The Comedy Central Channel, truthiness refers to the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, 'I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.'

Apparently after realizing that truthiness was found in the Oxford English Dictionary, the Society later changed the wording of this press release on their website, from "First heard on The Colbert Report…" to "Recently popularized on The Colbert Report…".

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year

On December 10, 2006, the Merriam-Webster dictionary announced that truthiness was selected as its 2006 Word of the Year, based on a reader poll, by a 5-to-1 margin over the second-place word google.[3] "We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs", said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "'Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."[21] However, despite winning Word of the Year, the word does not appear in the 2006 edition of the Merriam-Webster English Dictionary. In response to this omission, during "The Wørd" segment on December 12, 2006 Colbert issued a new page 1344 for the tenth edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary that featured truthiness. To make room for the definition of "truthiness" (including a portrait of Colbert), the definition for the word "try" was removed with Colbert stating that it should have "tried harder". He also sarcastically told viewers to 'not' download the new page and 'not' glue it in the new dictionary in libraries and schools.

Use in political and social commentary

James Frey controversy

The Chicago Tribune published an editorial in its January 16, 2006 issue titled "The Truthiness Hurts", crediting the rise of truthiness as serendipitously providing an apt description of the Oprah Book Club controversy over James Frey's semi-fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces.[22] Truthiness was also used to describe the Frey controversy by USA Today in its January 15, 2006 issue,[23] by several other publications including The New York Times and by the television news program Nightline on its October 23 and January 26 editions.[24]

Oprah Winfrey also discussed truthiness with Frank Rich on her show, in reference to the Frey controversy and the column "Truthiness 101" Rich had recently published in the New York Times.[25] They also mentioned Colbert's role in popularizing "truthiness".[15]

On January 27, MSNBC ran a commentary titled "Oprah strikes a blow for truthiness: Do facts really matter? Ask Winfrey, James Frey or Stephen Colbert", making the case that Winfrey's about-face on Frey's book was a "small (and belated) but bold nudge back out of the proud halls of truthiness", but also opportunistic and too little too late.[26]

In the Canadian Parliament

In 2006, Liberal Party of Canada leadership contender Ken Dryden used truthiness as an extensive theme in a speech in the House of Commons. The speech dealt critically with the current government's Universal Child Care Plan.[27] Dryden defined truthiness as "something that is spoken as if true that one wants others to believe is true, that said often enough with enough voices orchestrated in behind it, might even sound true, but is not true."

MoveOn

MoveOn and Brave New Films launched a satirical petition campaign against Stephen Colbert and Truthiness entitled "Stop the Falsiness" in anticipation of MoveOn founder Eli Pariser's appearance on The Report.

Further use by Colbert

After introducing "truthiness", Colbert has repeatedly referred to "truthiness" and his original definition of it, both on and outside of The Colbert Report.

Alleged snubbing by the Associated Press, and Colbert's response

The Associated Press reported on the American Dialect Society's selection of truthiness as the Word of the Year,[28] including the following comments by one of the voting linguists:

Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said "truthiness" means "truthy, not facty". "The national argument right now is, one, who's got the truth and, two, who's got the facts", he said. "Until we can manage to get the two of them back together again, we're not going to make much progress."

On each of the first four episodes of the Report after the selection of truthiness as Word of the Year, Colbert lamented that news reports neglected to acknowledge him as the source of the word. On the first of these episodes, he added Michael Adams to his "On Notice" board, and Associated Press reporter Heather Clark, the author of the article, to his "Dead to Me" board.[29] On the third of these episodes, he ranked the AP at the top of the "Threat-Down",[30] one of few entries ever to gain the number one spot in place of bears. On the following episode he called Michael Adams and asked for an apology. Though Michael Adams never apologized, Colbert "accepted" his "apology", and took him "off notice".

Associated Press response to Colbert

On January 13, the first day after the four-day run of abuse of the AP on the Report, the AP ran a story about The Colbert Report being upset about being snubbed by the AP, in an article titled "Colbert: AP the biggest threat to America".[31] As he has in the past, Colbert remained in character in an interview for the story, and used it to further the political satire of truthiness; excerpts of the story are:

"…When an AP story about the designation sent coast to coast failed to mention Colbert, he began a tongue-in-cheek crusade, not unlike the kind his muse Bill O'Reilly might lead in all seriousness."

"'It's a sin of omission…' Stephen Colbert told the AP on Thursday….'It's like Shakespeare still being alive and not asking him what Hamlet is about,' he said."

"The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition for 'truthy' dating back to the 1800s….'The fact that they looked it up in a book just shows that they don't get the idea of truthiness at all,' Stephen Colbert said Thursday. 'You don't look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in your gut.'"

"Though slight, the difference of Colbert's definition and the OED's is essential. It's not your typical truth, but, as The New York Times wrote, 'a summation of what (Colbert) sees as the guiding ethos of the loudest commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.'"

"Colbert, who referred on his program to the AP omission as a 'journalistic travesty,' said Thursday that it was similar to the much-criticized weapons of mass destruction reporting leading up to the Iraq War. 'Except,' he said, 'people got hurt this time.'"

On January 14, Clark herself responded in an article titled "Exclusive 'News' — I'm dead to Stephen Colbert".[32] She furthered the rise of "truthiness" in published English in conceding, "Truthiness be told, I never had seen The Colbert Report until my name graced its 'Dead to Me' board this week….But I will say that I watched Colbert's show for the first time…It was funny. And that's not just truthy. That's a fact."

Arianna Huffington

On January 31, 2006, Arianna Huffington used truthiness on the Huffington Post.[33] Huffington later appeared as a guest on the March 1, 2006, episode of The Colbert Report. She challenged Colbert on his claim that he had invented the word truthiness. During the interview, Colbert declared, "I'm not a truthiness fanatic; I'm truthiness's father." Huffington corrected him, citing Wikipedia, that he had merely "popularized" the term. Regarding her source, Colbert responded: "Fuck them."[34]

Veritasiness

Also in 2006, after Colbert delivered the commencement speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, he was presented with both an honorary degree and a purple T-shirt bearing a logo that reads, "Veritasiness Tour", creating a semi-Latinized version of truthiness.[35]

Describing President Bush in person

File:Colbert Dinner.JPG
At the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, in President Bush's immediate presence, Stephen Colbert describes Bush by reiterating part of his definition of truthiness.

On April 29, 2006, Colbert was the featured guest at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and, in President Bush's immediate presence, described Bush's thought processes by repeating almost verbatim some of his original description of truthiness. Colbert's effort at the WHCA dinner prompted truthiness to hit a new popularity peak in blog postings following the dinner — even though he did not actually use the word at the dinner.[36]

Editor and Publisher again used truthiness to describe Colbert's criticism of President Bush, in an article published the same day entitled "Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner — President Not Amused?" E&P reported that the "blistering comedy 'tribute' to President Bush… left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close" and that many people at the dinner "looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting — or too much speaking 'truthiness' to power".[37] E&P reported a few days later that its coverage of Colbert at the dinner drew "possibly its highest one-day traffic total ever", and published a letter to the editor asserting that "Colbert brought truth wrapped in truthiness".[38]

On the same weekend, The Washington Post published transcripts of segments from The Colbert Report under the heading "dept. of truthiness;"[39] Salon covered Colbert at the White House dinner in an article entitled "The Truthiness Hurts: Stephen Colbert's brilliant performance unplugged the Bush myth machine—and left the clueless D.C. press corps gaping;"[40] and the popular news program 60 Minutes on CBS featured an interview with Colbert by Morley Safer, in which Safer discussed truthiness.[41]

Writing six months later in a column entitled "Throw The Truthiness Bums Out", New York Times columnist Frank Rich called Colbert's after-dinner speech a "cultural primary" and christened it the "defining moment" of the United States' 2006 midterm elections.[42][43]

Colbert ascribes truthiness to Wikipedia

File:Wikiality.jpg
Colbert introduces the term "wikiality" as a theme related to truthiness.

In "The Wørd" on, July 31 2006, Colbert claimed that Wikipedia was an example of truthiness, and that it was his favourite website. He ironically praised Wikipedia, saying, "I love Wikipedia ... any site that's got a longer entry on truthiness than on Lutherans has its priorities straight". He went on to say:

You see, any user can change any entry, and if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true.… If only the entire body of human knowledge worked this way. And it can, thanks to tonight's wørd: Wikiality. Now, folks, I'm no fan of reality, and I'm no fan of encyclopedias. I've said it before. Who is Britannica to tell me that George Washington had slaves? If I want to say he didn't, that's my right. And now, thanks to Wikipedia, it's also a fact. We should apply these principles to all information. All we need to do is convince a majority of people that some factoid is true.… What we're doing is bringing democracy to knowledge.[6][44]

References

  1. ^ Dick Meyer (2006-12-12). "The Truth Of Truthiness". CBS News. Retrieved 2006-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year by American Dialect Society" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-06-04.
  3. ^ a b "Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2006". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2006-12-08.
  4. ^ a b Nathan Rabin (2006-01-26). "Interview: Stephen Colbert". A.V. Club. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b "The Colbert Report: Videos: The Word (Truthiness)". 2005-10-17. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b The Colbert Report / Comedy Central recording of The WØRD "Wikiality", Comedy Central, July 31 2006.
  7. ^ a b c Marc Peyser (2006-02-13). "The Truthiness Teller". Newsweek. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "newsweek" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Language Log: Truthiness Or Trustiness?". Retrieved 2006-06-04.
  9. ^ "Benjamin Zimmer homepage". Retrieved 2006-06-04.
  10. ^ Howard Kurtz (transcript) (2005-10-23). "CNN Reliable Sources". CNN. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Allesandra Stanley (2005-10-25). "Bringing Out The Absurdity Of the News". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Many dictionaries (e.g. American Heritage, Merriam-Webster, New Oxford Dictionary of English, etc.) offer definitions for trustiness.
  13. ^ Jacques Steinberg (2005-12-25). "2005: In A Word: Truthiness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "'NY Times' Frank Rich Taking Book Leave". Editor and Publisher. 2006-01-22. Retrieved 2006-01-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ a b David Carr (2006-01-30). "How Oprahness Trumped Truthiness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Gloria D. Howard; William M. Phillian (2006-05-03). "Truthiness and Power". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "Where words come from". 2006-01-05. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Word of the Week Archive". Retrieved 2006-06-04.
  19. ^ ""Truthiness", "Wikiality" named TV words of year". Reuters. August 27, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "'Truthiness' and 'Wikiality' Named Top Television Buzzwords of 2006 Followed by 'Katrina', 'Katie,' and 'Dr. McDreamy'". Global Language Monitor. August 27, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Adam Gorlick (2006-12-08). "Colbert's 'truthiness' pronounced Word of the Year". AP/Houston Chronicle. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ Chicago Tribune editorial board (2006-01-16). "The Truthiness Hurts". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2006-02-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Marco R. della Cava (2006-01-15). "Truth falls to "Pieces" after suspect memoir". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Frank Rich (2006-01-22). "Truthiness 101: From Frey to Alito". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ "The Oprah Winfrey Show (transcript)". 2006-01-26. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Jon Bonné (2006-01-27). "Oprah strikes a blow for truthiness". MSNBC. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ "Truthiness". 2006-05-04. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Heather Clark (2006-01-07). "Honestly, "truthiness" is selected the word of 2005". The Seattle Times / Associated Press. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "The Colbert Report: Videos: On Notice (A Glaring Omission)". Retrieved 2006-06-04.
  30. ^ "The Colbert Report: Videos: Threatdown". Retrieved 2006-06-04.
  31. ^ Jake Coyle (2006-01-13). "Colbert: AP the biggest threat to America". CBS News / Associated Press. Retrieved 2006-11-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ "Exclusive "News": I'm Dead to Stephen Colbert". 2006-01-14. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ "Will America's New Love Affair With the Truth Extend to Bush's SOTU Speech?". 2006-01-31. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ "The Colbert Report: Videos (Arianna Huffington)". 2006-03-01. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ E&P Staff (2006-06-04). "Colbert Tells College Graduates: Get Your Own TV Show". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ "Trend results: Truthiness". Retrieved 2006-05-02.
  37. ^ E&P Staff (April 29, 2006). "Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner — President Not Amused?". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved 2006-05-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ E&P Staff (2006-05-02). "Tuesday's Letters: Colbert Offensive, Colbert Mediocre, Colbert a Hero, Colbert Vicious, Colbert Brave". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ "Dept. of Truthiness: The Colbert Rapport". The Washington Post. 2006-04-30. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ Michael Scherer (2006-05-01). "The truthiness hurts". Salon. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ "The Colbert Report: Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's "Fake" Newsman". 2006-04-30. Retrieved 2006-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Rich, Frank (November 5, 2006). "Throw the Truthiness Bums Out". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-11-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ Froomkin, Dan (November 7, 2006). "Bubble Trouble". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-11-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ YouTube recording of The Colbert Report, "Wikiality", Comedy Central, July 31 2006.

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