Monday, November 24, 2014

Logical Fallacies in the Colbert Report

Before starting this post I would like to point out that I do know that the Colbert Report is a satire and the persona he represents on the show is not the one he really is.

In a recent episode of the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert tackles the issue of Obama's immigration speech. Along with FOX News he calls the order executive amnesty. He claims the executive amnesty gives the immigrants more rights than just citizens. He also mentions early immigrants, but claims that they were different. He then goes on the compare Obama to an emperor. He also says that riots may occur from people seeing how same things are. He uses a slippery slope fallacy here. He also claims that Obama is declaring war on the constitution, which is a faulty analogy.


Colbert is jumping to conclusions without, as he admits, even hearing the speech. He accuses Obama of overreaching his powers, and tries to discredit him. He is emulating the conservative media and their attacks on him. Colbert does not follow logic in his stories so much as heart and his own word, truthiness.

4 comments:

  1. Although Colbert doesn't actually believe in the claims of his character, I do agree with you on this. The way he presents his information is humorous, but it depicts the immigration situation as a slippery slope, as you pointed out. Nice analysis!

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  2. i Agree with the slippery slope fallacy as it pertains to immigration (its also pretty funny)

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  3. Colbert is such an interesting show to analyze, as it can be hard for some people to separate Colbert from his character. This is a great example of a logical fallacy.

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  4. I really liked how you found a humorous clip to represent the slippery slope and I think you did a very nice job of dissecting the show.

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