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http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/08/12/brodhead-gears-colbert-report-debut

Brodhead gears up for Colbert Report debut
By Lauren Carroll | August 12, 2013 2:31 PM


President Richard Brodhead, an expert in English, is gearing up to face off against a wordsmith of another kind.

This Thursday, Brodhead will appear as a guest on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Although Stephen Colbert might deliver jabs at Duke, Brodhead plans to focus the conversation on the humanities. At least he plans to try.

Brodhead said he was asked to appear on the show to discuss a recent report on K-12 education prepared by the national Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, which he co-chaired. The report, which found that not enough people see the importance in a humanities education, has received a lot of attention since it was released in June.

"I presume (Colbert's) asked me on there to talk about the report," Brodhead said. "But as you know, he doesn't totally stick to any topic."

Comedy Central contacted Brodhead soon after he appeared on PBS NewsHour, alongside actor and commission member John Lithgow, in June.

When asked if he's ready to take on a person who has a penchant for argument on national television, Brodhead said, "I've spent my whole life dealing with people who like to rebut things."

He added that he isn't sure if the appearance will boost his popularity with students, but the opportunity came at a good time—just a few days before the new freshman class heads to Durham.

"It's a good chance to show off Duke," he said.

The episode will air on Comedy Central on Thursday, Aug. 15 at 11:30 p.m. EST.

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http://www.durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013
Brodhead, Colbert, and Questions

Richard Brodhead will be appearing Thursday night on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Let’s set aside the obvious: why would a group that wants to promote increased public support for the humanities select as its spokesperson a figure best known outside the academy for this disastrous appearance on 60 Minutes?

Instead, since Brodhead himself has said that he sees the interview as “a good chance to show off Duke,” perhaps Colbert could find the time to ask him why, in his first public appearance after their arrest, he said that even if Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were innocent, whatever they did was “bad enough.” Does he continue to believe what he told the Durham Chamber of Commerce in April 2006, and if not, why did he never retract or apologize for his remarks?

Some other items that remain unanswered:

(1) Why specifically did Brodhead and the Duke Board of Trustees demand Mike Pressler’s resignation in early April 2006? What did they expect the public reaction to their move to be? Did they recognize at the time that the forced resignation would likely be interpreted as a sign of the players’ likely guilt?

(2) When did Brodhead and the trustees first learn of the conduct of former SANE-nurse-in-training Tara Levicy? After so learning, what steps did the Duke leadership take to ensure that Levicy would not affect any additional sexual assault cases?

(3) What steps, if any, did the Duke administration take against either Wahneema Lubiano or the African-American Studies Department for their decision to improperly use Duke funds to pay for an ad denouncing the school’s students, and for their falsely claiming that numerous Duke departments officially endorsed the ad? If, as is widely believed, the university took no disciplinary steps on the matter, should Duke professors interpret this inaction as an implicit statement that Lubiano and her department really didn’t do anything wrong?

(4) Why didn’t Duke administrators reveal to the Coleman Committee the university’s then-secret arrangement with the city for Duke students—and only Duke students—to be prosecuted to the maximum for alcohol-related offenses?

(5) Does the university continue to stand by the Bowen/Chambers report as the best analysis for how the administration should have handled the case? If so, how can the university explain the millions of dollars in settlements and legal fees for administrators’ conduct that Bowen and Chambers ignored? If not, why did the university never elect to commission a Freeh Report-style white paper for Duke?


Somehow, I doubt any of these questions will get asked. And in the unlikely event they were asked, I can all but guarantee they would generate a non-responsive reply.

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Prediction-- Brodhead will come across as a pompous ass

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“Friends: a difficult question is, how can we support our
lacrosse players at a devastatingly hard time without
seeming to lend aid and comfort to their version of the
story?

We can’t do anything to side with them, or even,
if they are exonerated, to imply that they behaved with
honor. The central admin can't, nor can Athletics.”

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During his
deposition on January 20, 2012, Mr. Alleva testified that he made positive and truthful
statements about Plaintiffs and their teammates’ character at the University’s press
conference on March 28, 2006. Mr. Alleva testified that he was “crucified”
immediately afterwards for making those statements by President Brodhead himself
and in front of the Crisis Management Team, all of whom knew how “off-message”
Mr. Alleva’s truthful, positive statements about Plaintiffs were.

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http://dukecheck.com/

Brodhead defeats Colbert at his own game

For six minutes last night, which was all the allocated time, Richard Brodhead kept ahead of Steven Colbert on his nightly show on Comedy Central. He parried quite effectively, he thrust back smoothly, and he won lusty cheers from the studio audience that probably did not know what to expect when it learned that the President of Duke University was next on the set.

Brodhead twinkled when he scored what we believe was his biggest point. Colbert took a copy of the report on the humanities from a commission that Brodhead co-chaired, and holding it for the camera, displayed what he said was an expensive binding designed to draw a better grade. And flipping the document open, Colbert noted the size of the margins, suggesting that like a student with a term paper that was too short, this was stretched.

Brodhead shot back that the margins were designed for Colbert’s notes as he read the document, putting a little fluster on the blustering host who clearly had no inkling of what was in the report.

When Colbert suggested the report consumed taxpayer money that would have better uses, Brodhead’s retort was to tell Colbert that he was going to be disappointed, but the funds came from a learned society and not the government.

Brodhead’s quick mind was on full display, as he squeezed Colbert out of the picture and produced several very articulate statements about the purpose of the commission and the role that humanities should play in our lives.

We held our breath at first, for the program started pretty raunchy, discussing how the goose that laid the Golden Egg “pooped all over” the American home. Not to mention how countless bulls had been stabbed in the gonads.

Oh oh, we figured, where is all this going to lead.

But starting at 11:52 PM, Brodhead captured the moment with wit and wisdom.

Now, our President had time to go to New York for this “interview.” On his various travels, he’s met the press in London and in India. It’s about time that he make himself available for real reporters from DukeCheck, and who knows, his agile mind and incisive use of words might win there too.

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http://today.duke.edu/2013/08/colbertrhb

Brodhead Brings the Humanities to 'The Colbert Report'
August 16, 2013


DURHAM, NC - Duke President Richard H. Brodhead got some laughs and the humanities got some love during his appearance Thursday on Comedy Central's popular "The Colbert Report."

Brodhead traded wit with the comedian Stephen Colbert while delivering a serious message: The humanities are an essential part of a strong education, but they need support.

[rock, rock, on the ground,
tell me something real profound...(?)]

Colbert brought Brodhead on to discuss the recent report "The Heart of the Matter," produced for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) by a committee co-chaired by Brodhead.

"There's a hunger for the things the humanities supply, but people haven't paid it much attention," Brodhead said.

[Is Duke therefore going to revise its curriculum, then--and maybe leave out some of the obligatory PC indoctrination courses?]

Playing his faux blowhard news commentator, Colbert humorously challenged Brodhead on the meaning and value of the humanities not only for humanities majors but the wider public. Along the way, he set up Duke's president for his own comments that brought audience applause.

"Even the president of MIT (a member of the AAAS committee) said engineers need to do more than engineer; they need to be able to communicate," Brodhead said.

When Colbert noted the wide margins of the report, asking if that was to make it seem more thick and meaty, Brodhead even got Colbert laughing with his response: "All serious readers know that margins are to keep your notes in."

The segment ended with Colbert noting Brodhead was a Melville scholar and throwing out a question:

"Is Moby Dick a metaphor for the struggle of trying to read Moby Dick?" Colbert asked.

"You missed your calling as a literary critic," Brodhead replied.

The full segment can be viewed below following a short advertisement.

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The segment ended with Colbert noting Brodhead was a Melville scholar and throwing out a question:

"Is Moby Dick a metaphor for the struggle of trying to read Moby Dick?" Colbert asked.

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http://www.heraldsun.com/news/x2119574981/Duke-President-Brodhead-receives-Colbert-fist-bump

Duke President Brodhead receives Colbert fist bump
Aug. 16, 2013 @ 02:32 PM

DURHAM —
Duke University President Richard Brodhead stood up for humanities majors on Thursday night’s “Colbert Report” and received a fist bump of respect from Stephen Colbert himself.

The move sparked excitement in the Twitterverse as Brodhead, an English major and William Preston Few Professor of English, discussed the summer report “The Heart of the Matter,” which calls upon lawmakers and educators to strengthen their focus on the humanities and social sciences.

Brodhead co-chairs the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, which authored the report.

(snip)

Students and others took to Twitter to comment on Brodhead’s conversation during the show.

Holly Epstein Ojalvo tweeted, “Lovely defense of the value of the #humanities by Richard Brodhead on Colbert. (And he's witty, too.) #englishmajorsoftheworldunite.”

Steven Brenner wrote, “My dad's reaction to Brodhead getting the Colbert bump was something similar to a teenage girl watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.”

Zachary A. tweeted, “watching this episode right now has given me the faith and hope this English major has needed. Thank you.”

To end the show, Colbert cited Brodhead’s expertise on the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, best known for the novel “Moby Dick.”

“That’s a big book, OK. I’ve got a beautiful copy of it,” Colbert said. “...Is Moby Dick a metaphor for the struggle of trying to read Moby Dick?”

“You missed your calling as a literary critic,” Brodhead said.