Stephen "welcomed" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to discuss the release last week of the now-famous video showing the killing of a dozen Iraqis, including a Reuters photographer and staffer, from U.S. Apache helicopters. I've tweeted dozens of times about it since then, drawing a wide response. Colbert built up to the interview with a separate segment poking fun at government secrecy, in the usual mode. Then after a break, he brought out Assange and again things proceeded typically for a bit, drawing audience laughs.
But then Colbert, uncharacteristically, dropped his faux outrage and really went after his guest for terming the video "Collateral Murder," obviously trying to stick up for the troops after his trip to Iraq and other supportive measures. He made a couple of good points but also suggested, in a low moment, that Assange didn't know what he was talking about because he had not served in the military himself. There were no chuckles from the host at that point--and the audience clearly did not know how to react. Yes, much of this was Colbert in his "faux" character but to an unusual extent some of it was clearly not.
Colbert also charged that Assange had edited out the fact that there was a "firefight" nearby. Assange cooly called this a lie, and said that classified documents showed no such thing. This seemed to set Stephen back a bit. There was no mention of the attack on the van trying to take away the wounded photog, which severely injured two kids.
Then the segment ended on the usual humorous note.
Below is just the interview segment that aired. When he signed off, Colbert said the unedited version would be online--and it's just been posted. It has more of the "faux" Colbert character than the edited version. You'll find it below the edited version. Sort of like that Iraq video: the shorter and longer version.
Unedited:
