In the wake of their decision, they should have expected nothing less than ridicule and satire from Colbert himself.
WOI, the local ABC affiliate, thought better of airing his commercial a mere hour before its scheduled debut on Wednesday night.
Colbert paid to have his FEC-approved Super PAC commercials air on the three primary Des Moines TV stations in the run-up to Saturday’s straw poll. Two stations ran the ads with no questions asked (presumably because of their pleasant paycheck from the PAC), but WOI decided to review the content, at which point they deemed the ads potentially “confusing to many of our Central Iowa viewers.” In a statement, WOI said they took the “responsible” route by yanking the commercials with an hour to spare.
(READ: FEC Approves Colbert’s Super PAC)
Not one to take rejection lightly, Colbert took to the airwaves to skewer the station. He blamed the “Midwestern media elite” for the censorship, claiming the station’s management was sitting high above in their “ivory corn silos” trying to control the state’s political dealings.
But in reality, the news station had no more control over the political future than Colbert’s Super PAC. That’s because Colbert’s ad campaign called on straw poll voters to give their hat tip to a fictitious write-in candidate called “Rick Parry.” “That’s Parry with an ‘A’ for America — with an ‘A’ for Iowa,” he explains. Confusing? Maybe. Classic Colbert? Most definitely.
Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.