August 17, 2011

Des Moines Register
Stephen Colbert has twice mocked Des Moines ABC-TV affiliate WOI-TV on his Comedy Central show for rejecting the campaign spots produced by his political action committee. Ray Cole, president of WOI parent Citadel Communications, says he’s a Colbert fan but believes the station made the right decision. “This was a close call for us. Our instincts are to grant access to our airwaves to qualified parties. We just felt this was too confusing. The straw poll isn’t a real election, but … it has a real impact.”

Rachel Paine Caufield, who teaches a political satire class at Drake University, thinks WOI has a point: “This whole thing is like the cool kids playing a prank, and one stand-up kid says, ‘OK, this has gone too far. They [WOI-TV] might be doing the right thing, but they’re not going to be cool.”
> WOI-TV: Colbert has apologized to us and issued a challenge

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