From WNYC, I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Tuesday, May 19th.

This Thursday night will be the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS.

Many of you know that.

In just a minute, we'll talk about the intersection of politics and the broadcasting

business that is bringing that about with Bill Carter, author of two books and a website

about late night TV shows and who covered television for many years for the New York Times.

He has a Times guest essay now called CBS Cancels Itself, not just Colbert. First, though, here's a 30-second

clip from Stephen Colbert's very first late-night show when he was playing a blowhard right-wing

talk show host on his Comedy Central show called The Colbert Report, and he coined the

word that his character would live by truthiness.

Truthiness.

Now, I'm sure some of the word police, the wordinistas over at Webster's, are going to say,

hey, that's not a word.

Well, anybody who knows me know that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books.

They're elitist, constantly telling us what is or isn't true or what did or didn't happen.

Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914?

If I want to say it happened in 1941, that's my right.

I don't trust books.

I don't trust books.

Stephen Colbert in character, introducing the Colbert Report on October 17, 2005.

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