Here’s a YouTube post of a segment from The Colbert Report, where Colbert takes the morning news shows to task. Two such shows had bits on Colbert making politicians look bad, and they both asked the question, why would politicians be so stupid as to go on to a show that would ask them questions that could make them look bad?

GOOD MORNING AMERICA’S JAKE TAPPER: But with the reputation-damaging risk associated with an appearance on The Colbert Report, why do politicians keep going on the show?

TODAY SHOW’S MATT LAUER: And yet they keep on coming!
CO-HOST: Why? Why?
LAUER: They think they’re being hip, I don’t know.

Underlying that question is a dark truth about journalism today: no one on television, radio, or in the print media is willing to ask hard questions to politicians for fear of the politicians avoiding them. They are unwilling to ask questions that might stump the politicians or make them look bad, and when the politician is obviously lying or is avoiding answering a question, they let them get away with it. It also shows up the unwillingness of most politicians to face the public in a setting where their hypocrisy or ignorance could be revealed.

Watching Colbert’s segment with the “news” people saying what they said makes this fact evident; they are clearly stumped as to why any politician would appear when the interviewer is not some emasculated softball-thrower. Although Colbert did not mention this aspect of it specifically, the subtext is frighteningly–and comically–clear. And you gotta admit, it’s huge fun to see Colbert get Robert Wexler to say, “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do!” and to see Colbert absolutely destroy Lynn Westmoreland by pointing out that he was pushing legislation requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in the House and Senate–and then asking him to name the Ten Commandments. Westmoreland could only get out three.

Maybe part of the reason the politicians agree to go on the show is that they think they’ll be treated with kid gloves, like with most interviewers. Now, Wexler seems to be pretty hip here–he knew what was going on and easily could have refused or sidestepped Colbert’s request–other politicians have done so. But Westmoreland appears to have had no clue as to what he was getting himself into. And that’s probably why most people, not just politicians, agree to appear in segments on The Colbert Report and The Daily Show: because they simply don’t know what they’re in for. The shows are popular, but not so popular (especially with certain segments of the population) that a lot of people who agree to appear don’t know what they’re agreeing to. That these people tend to be un-hip and often clueless just makes it funnier.