Great point, I hadn't thought of it that way. I guess what little I've seen from real (serious?) Colbert reveals a very deep humanism that, coupled with his smarts, is rare for someone so comfortable in front of a camera.

I think he has the talent to engender the widespread trust and respect that people had for Murrow. I'm not saying he should be a newscaster, though. I don't know what format a realtalking Colbert would come by. At some point in the Schmidt interview he goes into his sense of what character Colbert is in relation to discourse and media and it's a variation of the Stewart/Colbert party line: they are there to make fun of the media. It's too bad because if anyone has the ability to change media for the better, it would be them.