TOW #1 Stephen Colbert's Night Vision

In this article, written by James Poniewozik for TIME Magazine, Poniewozik weighs comedian Stephen Colbert's possible effects on the late night T.V. industry as he takes on the role of Late Show host, and also delves deeper into the real Colbert, who often hides behind a cast of colorful caricatures. Initially, this article appears to simply be an entertainment piece to highlight Late Show's new host; instead, what Poniewozik produces at the end is a complex character study on one of America's most iconic, yet somehow equally ambiguous T.V. figures. Poniewozik is an established writer for Time and consistently appears in the magazine's weekly issues. In this article Poniewozik's main goal is to show the reader--generally Americans who watch late night television--a different and more complex side of Colbert than he usually allows the public to see. In order to do this, Poniewozik employs various rhetorical devices to create a humorous but also inquisitive tone. He uses colorful metaphors to convey to the reader who Colbert really is, saying of his role on network TV, "Colbert seems as if he was born inside a television, built from the archetypal idea of what A Guy From T.V. looks like--when he smiles, you half expect a CGI gleam to flash from his teeth with a sound-effects chime ... He's TV's inside man, a guy who can comfortably be given the controls of a network battleship yet cheerfully steer it off the map, humming a chipper little tune" (Poniewozik 90). Through this analogy Poniewozik tells his readers of Colbert's TV facade and avant-garde approach to mass consumer network television, but in a way that invokes pathos and appeals to the reader's sense of humor and whimsy. In addition to this, Poniewozik also explores an inquisitive tone in a series of rhetorical questions aimed at shedding light on the elusive "real Colbert". He poses questions on which persona Colbert will bring to his new role on The Late Show, asking "Which of these hosts will we see in September--the one man repertory of characters? The deliberately clueless interviewer? The political satirist? The genuinely curious mensch?" (Poniewozik 87). Through this exploration, Poniewozik travels with the reader to see who really is Stephen Colbert? Thus, he establishes ethos as he shares the same curiosity with the reader. Through these strategies, Poniewozik effectively serves his purpose of revealing who really is the complex person behind Colbert.