Reality as a Commodity

Matt Dixon spoke in class today about The Colbert Report and host Stephen Colbert's push for viewers to change the Wikipedia entry regarding the African elephant population. A caveat to this happened on Colbert's show last week when he discussed recent allegations against Microsoft that they were changing content on Wikipedia to cast a positive light on Microsoft and the company's products. Colbert described "reality" as a commodity - something that can be purchased by the highest bidder - and challenged viewers to change the word's definition on Wikipedia to reflect it. This way, when he referred to reality as a commodity and someone challenged him, he could say, "Yes, I'm right...go ahead and look it up on Wikipedia".