Colbert Report Echoes OpenLeft's Coverage of Trade/Child Labor Controversy

from Open Left - Front Page by David Sirota

More than a week ago, OpenLeft dug up an obscure item from the industry journal Inside U.S. Trade about corporate lobbyists gearing up to try to gut domestic laws that ban the sale of products made with child, convict or slave labor. Our post was promptly picked up and promoted by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow - and last night, it got an even bigger boost from Stephen Colbert, who led his show with the coverage. Watch it from the top here or here:

This is a big deal for 2 clear reasons. First, Colbert's piece reaches a broad audience of both political junkies and less political Comedy Central viewers - and his cut-to-the-bone presentation of the seemingly esoteric issues of trade and globalization is reaching both those audiences via this segment. Second, his amplification of this particular story reiterates OpenLeft's (and the larger blogosphere's) integration into the broader mediasphere. It is proof that the work we're doing here isn't being done in a vacuum.

So, as I said last week, I hope when you consider contributing to OpenLeft's grassroots fundraiser, you look at how we got the ball rolling on this key issue as just one example of why our work here matters. I think it's fair to say that because of our work covering and promoting this issue, and because that work became a part of the larger media discussion, there's a better chance than American law won't be changed to effectively legalize products made with child, slave and convict labor. That's a real accomplishment.