The Wall Street Journal report on classified documents was allegedly downplayed by Colbert, who made light of the situation. "Well, there it is. Chinese wet markets, you're off the hook," Colbert said, before mocking the intelligence agency overseeing biological weapons for investigating the pandemic origins. Critics accused the liberal comedian of mischaracterizing and downplaying the report.
RedState writer Bonchie mocked Colbert's monologue, tweeting, "'Stay in your lane,' Colbert says to one of the 18 US intelligence agencies. Clearly, only late-night comics have the authority to judge how COVID-19 was released."
March 01, 2023
Similarly, Outkick Sports writer Ian Miller tweeted that the monologue was an "endless, willful rejection of reality" and suggested that people like Colbert couldn't accept information conflicting with their political ideology.
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Colbert's comment that the Energy Department should "stay in their lane" was also ridiculed on social media. Fox News contributor Karol Markowicz tweeted, "When Colbert tells the Energy Dept to 'stay in their lane,' what he actually means is ‘you’re on our team, don’t ever say anything to make us look bad again.’"
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Meanwhile, media critic and Fox News contributor Joe Concha suggested that Colbert's comments were reminiscent of when the comedian was more political during Donald Trump's presidency.
Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy criticized Colbert for omitting how other intelligence agencies also had "low confidence" in believing that the virus naturally escaped from a wet market.
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"Notice how Colbert emphasizes that Energy only has ‘low confidence’ in lab leak, brings up NIC & four other agencies leaning natural origin but doesn’t mention they also only have ‘low confidence’, & doesn’t mention at all that the only ‘moderate confidence’ is FBI with lab leak," he tweeted.
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The lab leak theory, which suggests that the virus originated from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, was previously dismissed as a conspiracy theory. However, in a 2021 appearance on Colbert's show, former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart suggested that the lab leak theory was a valid explanation for the virus. At the time, Colbert mocked his friend for "working with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson."
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