The Colbert Report cops a Peabody Award

Congrats to Stephen Colbert and all who work on his show, The Colbert Report, for winning the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. The award is well deserved, and just in case you don't think he deserves any kudos, it's okay by him - Colbert's inclined to give himself all the praise he deserves. *Smirk* My suggestion? He should send footage of this over to Bill O'Reilly and have some fun with it - maybe using the award as a doorstop, or something like that.

Just in case you were actually starting to believe that Bill O'Lielly is really Bill O'Reilly, it never gets old bringing up his biggest whopper ever told - a blatant lie that his old tabloid show, Inside Edition, won two Peabody Awards.

Man did I get a big laugh recalling how Franken made O'Reilly look like the gigantic ass he truly is. Cooks and Liars has the rest:

Many C&L readers remember the halcyon days when the worst lie Bill O’Reilly ever told was that his old show Inside Edition had won a Peabody Award, the oldest and most prestigious award given to electronic media. You may recall Al Franken also having lots of fun debunking that lie. Now it turns out that The Colbert Report, which "some people say" (ha) is a thinly veiled parody of The O’Reilly Factor, has actually won a Peabody award. Let's hope Mr. O'Reilly sends Mr. Colbert a congratulatory fruit basket.

Update: Okay, comment number 24 is good enough to bring up from below:

Colbert should run around saying he won a Polk, forcing people to remind him it was actually a Peabody.

Brilliant, just brilliant - especially the reader's comment. A little background - Bill O'Reilly smugly began telling people a few years ago that his old show, Inside Edition, won two Peabody Awards. "What do you want us to do, give 'em back?" he snidely remarked when once asked a question about IE being a tabloid show. Upon hearing this, Franken got curious, made a few calls, and discovered that O'Reilly's show hadn't so much as sniffed one Peabody, much less two. And the comment from the C&L story above about a Polk? That was what O'Reilly tried to cover his arse with - that his show won "two [George] Polk awards, not two Peabodys." Turns out, that was a lie, too; Inside Edition won a George Polk award, but after O'Reilly left. Oops.

Oh, why not? Here's some footage of the exchange Franken and O'Reilly had a few years ago at the Los Angeles Book Expo to promote their respective books. It's pretty good - watch as BOR comes unglued. Evidently, Billy no likey getting exposed as a liar. I promise it's worth it - it's under a minute...

Good stuff, eh? This is precisely why O'Reilly derides people like Franken and Websites like Media Matters - because they are able to successfully call him out on his lies. No wonder BOR hates the Internet. (Full disclosure - Franken is the first I read calling BOR "O'Lielly," so I'm carrying the torch, since Franken is trying to make a difference by running for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Minnesota. I hope he wins, but if he doesn't, maybe Franken will go back to writing his brilliant books that sagely debunk the right-wing noise machine, led by none other than O'Lielly himself.)

Al Franken for U.S. Senate - the funny man with a serious campaign

Al Franken, the former comedian and radio talk-show host turned politician, is running himself a great campaign for U.S. Senate so far against incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). Right now, he's about 10 points behind, up from about 30 down about eight months ago, and he's equaling Coleman in fund raising. Pretty impressive for a political neophyte.

If Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger can be elected governors of Minnesota and California, then surely Franken can win against Norm Coleman. (The fact that Franken is running in the same state that elected Ventura should say a great deal about his chances of winning - Minnesotans embrace candidates for office who are not run-of-the-mill politicians.)

Anyway, take a look at the video above - it's Franken's introduction to voters. As a Philadelphian, I'm writing about Franken because I'm concerned where our country is going, and I'm following a number of races in '08. Each and every race in the U.S. Senate will be critical, and Progressives need all the help they can get. I really like Al because I feel that I came to know him, at least a little bit, by listening to The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio during its nearly three-year run. Franken's show was one of wit, information an humor, in that order. Many people who have never listened to the show have criticized it, but if they had actually given the show a chance, I believe they would have come around. His show was not, I repeat, not in the vein of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage or Sean Hannity shows - it didn't tear people down, it made political points with humor and informative guests.

In short, Norm Coleman had best not underestimate Franken, or he'll be former Senator Norm Coleman. (I believe he will be, anyway.) Al's smart as a whip, he knows politics and policy and he really is a true Progressive.

If you have the means, regardless of where you live, I urge you to support Al Franken, even if it's just five bucks. Every dollar counts, and every supporter will make the difference in his race against Coleman.