If you haven’t heard about the recent Internet scandal involving Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report, then you might be living under a rock.
Last week, there was a flurry of Internet and even TV coverage of the hashtag #CancelColbert.
The situation arose when Colbert announced on his Emmy-winning TV show that he was going to be starting the “Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.” The “foundation” was set up in response to the news of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. Colbert, a satirical news anchor, set up his phony foundation.
The show posted the message on its Facebook account with a link to the segment where Colbert explained why the “foundation” had been set up. The show’s Twitter account, @ColbertReport, tweeted out the following message:
“I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.”
The tweet did not include a link to the original TV segment. What ensued was around 72 hours of outrange, debate, and mass media coverage of the hashtag #CancelColbert, that was originally started by at Twitter “hashtagtivist.”
Almost immediately after the controversy started, @ColbertReport took the tweet down, though as we all know, once something has been retweet and screen shotted…it is on the Internet forever. The show’s account subsequently tweeted that Mr. Colbert had no direct control over the account and that it was run by the network itself. Colbert himself even tweeted from his personal account staying that he was likewise outraged.
On Monday, Colbert devoted most of his show to addressing the issue and showed how effective reputation management can save a person’s image and branding.
Throughout the segment, Colbert poked fun at the fact that he had said many other things on the show that were much more offensive. He also shed light on the fact that even though Twitter had caused dictators to fall, he was still there.
Colbert started out the segment by recapping how the situation arose. He covered why he set up the “foundation” in response to the Washington Redskin’s foundation, pointed out that nearly the same message was put out on Facebook with no effect, and conceded that the folly of the tweet from @ColbertReport was that there was no context given with the message sent. He also stated that with the absence of context, he understood how some people might have been offended by the message that was sent out, which was an excellent move shares the online reputation management experts at Reputation Maxx.
Even better, Colbert called for people to stop attacking the “twitter hashtagtivist” that started #CancelColbert, saying that Twitter is “a place for speaking your mind, and also ruining every TV show I’ve ever seen.”
At the end of the segment, he recapped the situation, saying that a web editor he had never met had posted a tweet on an account that he has no access to. While he admitted to the fact that he made the joke about the foundation, he did show viewers that the out-of-context tweet was not his doing. After all, speech that is limited to 140 characters couldn’t possibly be taken the wrong way, right?
Later on in the show, Colbert’s guest was one of the co-founders of Twitter, Biz Stone. He publicly deleted the @ColbertReport Twitter, apologizing to the nation for the misunderstanding, as well as “disbanding” the foundation on the air.
So what can we learn from how Steven Colbert handled this situation?
1. Keep your cool – No matter what happens, it is important to keep your cool and deal with the situation at hand in a logical, controlled manner.
2. Take the time to address the situation and explain why it happened – Colbert did this beautifully with his segment on Monday.
3. Make light of the situation, provided that it’s appropriate – The Colbert Report is a critically acclaimed satirical news show – offending people is in the show’s nature. Colbert made fun of himself, those whom he offended as well as the situation as a whole.
4. Give context where context is needed – This whole #CancelColbert thing came about because the tweet was taken out of context in regards to the segment on the show. By providing that context in the segment on Monday, Colbert quelled the arguments of many of those who were calling for the cancellation of his show.
5. Take responsibility – Colbert revealed that the @ColbertReport Twitter account was one that was not run by him, but he did take responsibility for what was said and apologized to the public, which restored good faith says Reputation Maxx.
Bravo, Steven Colbert, for handling this “scandal” with poise and grace. We look forward to watching your show for years to come.
