COMEDY CENTRAL'S® "THE COLBERT REPORT" MAKES LINGUISTIC HISTORY.
"TRUTHINESS" VOTED AS THE 2005 WØRD OF THE YEAR
BY THE AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY
Stephen Colbert To Address This Milestone Achievement On Tonight's Show At 11:30 p.m. ET/PT
NEW YORK, January 9, 2006 -- Unlike other news anchors in the so-called mainstream media, Stephen Colbert is changing the world, one word at a time. This past Friday, a panel of linguists from The American Dialect Society (a.k.a. "the wordinistas") voted "truthiness" as the 2005 Word of the Year. The word "truthiness" was coined and first uttered by Stephen Colbert on Monday, October 17, during the series premiere of "The Colbert Report." Colbert will celebrate this enormous accomplishment on tonight's broadcast at 11:30 p.m.
Here's how Colbert first introduced the Nation to the 2005 Word of the Year. "Truthiness. Now, I'm sure some of the word police over at Websters are going to say, hey, that's not a word," said Colbert. "Well, anybody who knows me knows that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Telling us what is or isn't true or what did or didn't happen. Who is Britannica to tell me that the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I want to say it happened in 1941 that's my right. I don't trust books. They're all fact and no heart. That's exactly what's pulling our country apart today."
"...Right here in the gut," Colbert continues. That's where the truth comes from, ladies and gentlemen, the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your stomach and than in your head. Look it up. Now, somebody is going to say, I did look that up and it's wrong. Well, mister, that's because you looked it up in a book. Next time, try looking it up in your gut. I did. And my gut tells me that's how our nervous system works. Now I know some of you may not trust your gut. Yet, with my help, you will. The truthiness is, anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you."
Repeat episodes air Monday-Thursday at 1:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Tuesday-Friday at 1:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. (all times ET/PT). "The Colbert Report" regularly airs Monday-Thursday at 11:30 p.m.
"The Colbert Report" contains the personality, insight and overall rightness of "The Daily Show's" Stephen Colbert. That's why he now has a half-hour platform each night to give his take on the issues of the day and, more importantly, to tell you why everyone else's take is just plain wrong. What "The Daily Show" is to evening news, "The Colbert Report" is to O'Reilly/Scarborough/Hannity/Anderson Cooper, et al...except Colbert's show is intentionally funny. Dedicated to the heroes (that is, the people who watch the show), Colbert promises not just to read the news to viewers, but to feel the news at them. Guests who have appeared on the show include Stone Phillips, Lesley Stahl, Lou Dobbs, Anderson Cooper, Fareed Zakaria, Mark Cuban, Peggy Noonan, Harry Smith, Maureen Dowd and Richard Clarke.
"The Colbert Report" is the first project developed under COMEDY CENTRAL's first-look agreement with Jon Stewart's Busboy Productions, Inc. The show is produced by Busboy in association with Spartina Productions, Inc. Stewart, Ben Karlin and Colbert serve as executive producers and Lou Wallach is executive in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL.
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