Stephen Colbert talks 'Network' prophecy and Glenn Beck

Comedy Central political pundit Stephen Colbert opens up to the New York Times about his favorite movie, "Network." The 1976 drama (or dark comedy) chronicles the corruption of news media, which Colbert hails as both prophetic and beautiful.

It's easy to forget that Colbert's hyped up on-screen persona is just that -- a persona. The real Colbert is a bit more serious, commenting on everything from the acting to how the current media compares to the film's message.

When asked whether the film anticipates the various media personalities that his Stephen Colbert character sends up, he responds:

"Of course it does. But that's not necessarily, I think, what makes it great. That's what makes it alarming, is how prophetic it was. What makes it great is the beautiful way it's expressed."

Adding that of the present media landscape, there is one overarching theme that the film got right.

"'I will tell you what to think.' That's what it prefigures most of all," he explains. "'I will tell you what to think, and how to feel.' [Character Howard Beale is] doing it in a quasi-benevolent way, which is, I'm going to remind you that you're being anesthetized right now. That's what they get right, in terms of what you see on TV. That is a great bulk of what happens with news now. And not just the nighttime people that I'm sort of a parody of, not just the opinion-making people, but even what is left of straight news. Howard Beale is a precursor of people who are telling you how you feel. That's what they get right. And things like Sybil the Soothsayer -- Sybil the Soothsayer is not that different than [Bill] O'Reilly's body-language expert."

He continues to explain that though the film was not an inspiration for his own show, Glenn Beck has admitted to modeling himself on not only Howard Beale, but Jesus and Gandhi as well.

"I thought, 'Wow, none of those stories end well,'" Colbert quips.

"When Glenn Beck started, I listened to Glenn on the radio for years. I thought, this guy's got something here, but he's not quite focused," he recalls. "He's got one thing and he's going to ride that pony till it's dead, then he's going to ride to the next pony. But always riding in the same direction. And then I read an article that he was a big fan of Howard Beale. He's modeling himself on Howard Beale."

Beale is played in the film by Peter Finch, who won a posthumous Oscar for the role. His character is an anchorman regarded as "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves" lacking a filter between what he thinks and what he says. He is murdered on air at the conclusion of the story.