Satire

All You Can Eat Trump Buffet

Background:

In this segment of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Stephen jokes about some highlights of the Donald Trump presidential campaign. Throughout the segment Stephen compares covering the Trump campaign to eating an Oreo. It tastes so good to follow Trump and create this entertaining content. But for Donald Trump this may be a bad thing. According to an article published by The Washington Post, many believe that Trumps campaign is a publicity stunt, and has no intention to run for president (Cillizza, 2015). Furthermore it’s being seen as cheating to cover Trumps campaign to boost ratings, when there are serious presidential candidates that deserve coverage (Cillizza, 2015). As each new Trump related topic is brought up, Stephen shoves more and more Oreos into his mouth. Eventually he collapses into a Trump-induced coma. The significance of this segment is to highlight how entertaining and unusual Trump and his campaign are.

Statement: "Nabisco moves production plant from Chicago to Mexico."

Conclusion:

Truthiness. Trump mentioned that a Nabisco plant located in Chicago, Illinois would be moving to Mexico. According to a report published in the Chicago Tribune the statement is only mostly true. Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco brand, did close down nine production lines at the Chicago plant. They did this to reallocate resources to another Mondelez factory in Salinas, Mexico. Seven production lines still remain operational at the Chicago facility (Shropshire, 2015). The Washington Times reports the decision will affect 600 jobs at the Chicago bakery, but Nabisco says that the plant will continue to run (Howell, 2015).

Statement: "White supremacists love Trump."

Conclusion:

False. Stephen made the statement that everyone loves Trump but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. A CNN report entitled “Donald Trump’s Hardcore Hater,” introduces Rick Wilson. He is a longtime Republican political consultant who has spent the past few months waging war on Trump's candidacy (Moody and Lee, 2015). Additionally, a report published by the Huffington Post highlights pop singer Ricky Martin. He publically speaks out against Trump for his negative comments regarding the Latino community.

Statement: "Trump is not white, but an 'Oompa-Lumpamerican.'"

Conclusion:

False. Stephen claims that Trump is not a white person but an Oompa-Loompa. According to Biography.com, “Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York, the fourth of five children of Frederick C. and Mary MacLeod Trump.” (Biography.com, 2015). The New York Times reports that Mary MacLeod was a Scottish immigrant and Fred Trump comes from German descent (Rozhon, 1999). In the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it is explained that the Oompa-Loompas come from Loompaland, a faraway jungle habitat. According to WorldAtlas.com, Loompaland is not located in Scotland or Germany, therefore we know that Trump is not an Oompa-Loompa.

Statement: "Trump has built 94 story buildings."

Conclusion:

Truthiness. Trump mentions in a speech that he has built a 94 story building. According to Trump Organization website, Trump has built skyscrapers over 90 stories high but his tallest building, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, only measures up to 92 stories (Trump.com 2015). The Trump International Hotel and Tower website confirms that the building has only 92 stories (Trumpchicago.com, 2015).

SMELL Test:

S - Source: The main source of the piece was Stephen Colbert on his television program the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

• P - Proximity: (Low) Stephen Colbert is a comedian who’s proximity to the events was low. Colbert comments on political news from a distance and has no relative proximity to any of the information or events. 
• I - Independence: (Low) Colbert’s conflict of interest is that he needs to entertain his audience in order to keep his job. Taking away his independence as a source. Colbert will always present the news in a particular way to keep his audience laughing.
• E - Expertise: (Low) Colbert is not a politician, political pundit or journalist. According to Colbert’s biography published on Biography.com, he studied theatre at Northwestern University and has been involved in theatre and comedy for most of his life (Biography.com, 2015). Although Colbert has been a satirical news pundit since 1997 it would be a stretch to say that he has any real political expertise (Biography.com).

M - Motivation: The motivation for this segment is to make the Late Show audience laugh. In Detecting Bull, John McManus talks about content designed to inform, persuade or entertain (158). This segment was clearly content designed to entertain, yet it’s not as deceiving as entertainment pretending to be news. The show is so exaggerated and absurd that the intention couldn’t have been to convince anyone that the facts presented were real news.

E - Evidence: Throughout the segment, Colbert brings up statements that Trump made publicly and then analyzes them in a satirical comedic way. Each statement or topic was accompanied by a video clip taken from a major news source such as Fox, MSNBC or CNN. Confirming what Colbert claimed Trump said or did was true. This is a solid collection of evidence that proves Colbert is not fabricating things that Trump did or said. As for the statements that Colbert said about Trump, there is no evidence to support that everyone loves Trump or that he is in fact an Oompa-Loompa.

L - Logic: There is very little logical support of the evidence provided. The Colbert’s segment treats coverage of the Trump campaign like a guilty pleasure. The media is having a field day with the entertainment factor of the Trump coverage but none of it is real news. Trump is a very unusual and entertaining presidential candidate and this clip is just playing on that. There is no real purpose to the segment other than to entertain.

L - Left out: What was left out of this segment was any positive or intelligent statements Trump has made. This segment only shows Trumps campaign from one side and only covers instances that may be embarrassing to Trump. This type of coverage can subtly persuade in individual against a candidate. In Detecting Bull, McManus quotes Lauren Feldman, a communication professor at American University, “When audiences are exposed to political humor or satire, they are less likely to oppose the information in the message or question whether it is fair or accurate.”(McManus, 161). Feldman continues, “Ultimately, it can affect the perceptions of a candidate.”(McManus, 161). This could possibly be attributed to a stakeholder that has something to gain from Trumps failure.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Mocks Donald Trump at GOP Debate - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. (August 10, 2015). Retrieved October 5, 2015.

Background:

On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver goes over a few of the more entertaining Trump stories surrounding his 2016 presidential campaign. He starts with the Republican debate saying to not kid ourselves. This debate was only ever going to be about Trump (Oliver, 2015). Oliver then continues to bash Trump and make jokes at his expense. Oliver closes the segment saying that the GOP debate and Trumps’ controversial news will have no effect on the 2016 election (Oliver, 2015).

Statement: “The whole debate was a basically a circus side show.”

Conclusion:

False. Oliver made the comment that the whole Republican debate was basically a circus side show, referring to how he believed the night's debate to be ridiculous. This statement is not true as anyone who watched any footage of debate can tell you. There were no clowns, animals, or acrobats, it was a serious political debate. Although Oliver may have thought the proceedings of the night were outrageous, some disagree. Brian Stelter and Tom Kludt of CNN reported that many people did find value in the event, especially in the tough nature of the Fox correspondents moderating the debate (Stelter and Kludt, 2015). According to Stelter and Kludt, Rupert Murdoch, the owner of a veritable media empire that includes Fox News, tweeted, “What a fantastic night for USA, democracy, freedom and incidentally Fox News.” (Murdoch, 2015)

Statement: “Trumps father left him millions of dollars.”

Conclusion:

True. In the segment, Oliver mentions that Trump inherited millions of dollars from his father. According to an article published by Bloomberg View, Trump inherited 40 million dollars from his father Fred Trump in 1974 (Levine, 2015). Trumps biography states that in addition to his monetary inheritance he also inherited ownership of his father’s real-estate development business Elizabeth Trump and Son (Biography.com, 2015).

Statement: “Trump made the blood coming out of her wherever comment about Megyn Kelly.”

Conclusion:

True. An audio clip highlighted in Oliver’s segment quotes Trump allegedly making comments about Fox news correspondent Megyn Kelly, “You could see she had blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her where ever...” (Trump, 2015). Holly Yan of CNN confirms that Trump did in fact make these remarks in her article “Donald Trump's 'blood' comment about Megyn Kelly draws outrage” (Yan, 2015). According to Yan, Trump said this after being pressed by Kelly at the Republican national debate about misogynistic and sexiest remarks he made in the past. A CBS News report by Reena Flores said, “His comments caused right-wing commentator Erick Erickson to withdraw Trump's invitation to the RedState forum.” (Flores, 2015).

Statement: “The GOP debate will have no effect on the election.”

Conclusion:

Truthiness. In this clip Oliver makes the remark that the 2015 Republican debate will have no effect on the 2016 presidential election. This statement sounds like it could be true, dependent on the circumstances but it would be hard to prove until we get closer to the election. While it is difficult to prove whether or not one debate will have any impact on an election, Oliver makes a good case for his opinion. He says that this debate won’t affect the presidential election in the long run because it is still over a year away.” (Oliver, 2015). “There will be actual babies born on Election Day whose parents haven’t even met yet,” Oliver said (2015). In a report published in Washington Monthly, John Sides cites a study done by political scientist James Stimpson, looking at 60 years of debate poll numbers to see how they impact elections. “There is no case where we can trace a substantial shift to the debates.”(Sides, 2012).


SMELL Test:

S - Source: The main source in this segment is John Oliver on his show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

• P - Proximity: (Low) Oliver’s proximity to the information and events highlighted in his segment is low. John Oliver is a comedian for the HBO network not a journalist. He was not an eye witness source at any of the events.
• I - Independence: (Low) Oliver is a television show host, he must present the news in a certain way to keep his viewer ratings up. If Oliver is not making his audience laugh he will lose his job. This is a major conflict of interest that doesn’t allow Oliver to report the news accurately or fairly.
• E - Expertise: (Low) According to his biography, Oliver studied English in college (Biography.com, 2015). Although he has years of experience as a satirical political commentator, he has no real political or journalistic resume.

M - Motivation: The motivation of this segment is to entertain the general audience. In “Detecting Bull” McManus defines the concept of infotainment (McManus). According to McManus, infotainment is, “entertainment posing as news – stories designed to turn, but not fill, your head.” (McManus, 2012).

E - Evidence: For some of the information used on Oliver’s show he uses good journalistic practices and uses reputable sources to back up his information. Other comments made on the show are just too ridiculous and outrageous the audience would never believe them to be true. A few times in this segment Oliver introduces an outside video clip and then lets the video do the talking for him. This is a good show of evidence because Oliver doesn’t let a clear source get lost in translation like it could if he just explained the events.

L - Logic: There is very little logic used in this segment to back up any information. The segments purpose was to entertain the audience at Donald Trumps’ expense. It was intended to show how unusual and entertaining Trumps campaign is becoming. The main logic used in this segment was that even though Oliver and the rest of the country are making fun of Trump right now, the debate poll results and the Trump excerpts will have no effect on the upcoming election because it is too far in the future.

L - Leftout: The most obvious thing that was left out was coverage of any other candidate besides Trump. It may be difficult to divert attention away from Trump for a minute to focus on less interesting 2016 presidential candidates. For this to be a fair and equal report, some other candidates should be mentioned. Another major thing that was left out was any intelligent or positive thing Trump did or said. This segment was obviously created to make Trump look like a fool and the lack of any other coverage or topic makes this segment seem biased.