What do Barack Obama, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush have in common?Err … yeah, they are all presidents, but what else? Dammit. Can I start again? Thanks.What about Joe Biden and Sarah Palin? Gah, yeah the VP thing, but what else?And what do they have to do with Tom Hanks and Gen. Ray Odierno?If you are still reading this column, you probably know the answer: they were all on Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report,” in some capacity, this past week.Colbert reported from Iraq this past week, which was a stunning success across the board, and it’s something the national news can take a page from.Sure, it’s something college newspapers put forth an awful lot — and most of the time stupidly so — national news can learn from its black sheep satirical news brothers.Man, it gets annoying to read columns like that.But, anyway, the national news could learn a lot from one of the statements Colbert opened the week on: “My character and I both think it’s a shame that we’re not talking about the troops anymore.”Of course, this probably wasn’t his only reason for heading to Iraq. The cynic in us all can probably see that his ratings were boosted and columns like this — found in papers and blogs across the nation — are certainly a nice lift. But maybe that’s just karma: Do a good turn and get one in return.Because, however its spliced, what Colbert did is a good thing for the men and women serving our nation in Iraq. Aside from going over there and putting on a show that was not only attended by the armed forces there but was also targeted to the armed forces there. Many of the jokes didn’t translate all that well to those at home, a fact noted by online magazine Slate’s story about the week. But the crowd, all completely decked out in its fatigues, was roaring with laughter throughout most of the episodes.One of the more notable aspects of his week in Iraq was Colbert’s obvious desire to do this for the troops instead of for the fans of his show.For example, take the seemingly small but actually huge act of shaving his head — on Barack Obama’s “orders.” On first glance, the guy shaved his head. So what? He’s a celebrity. Not many people will care. But his job is to present himself daily on a faux news program, and having his audience watch as his hair goes through the ridiculous stages of regrowth has to take at least a bit of sacrifice. Or take the audience singing the Army song at the top of their lungs. It’s a pretty seemingly classic time for Colbert to make one of his snarky asides, but he did no such thing. A bit of a surprise, really.Most importantly, though, is that he brought some focus in the national news back to Iraq, even if it was about him being there and pretending to go through boot camp.Because however you spin it, Colbert has a point. In a time of 24 hour news cycles, we’re hearing more about the economy, Twitter and the fact that Kobe Bryant “felt like [he] got that big ol’ monkey off [his] back” than we do about the troops these days. The troops became old news for the media, but they certainly are not “old news” to their families or to themselves. Their sacrifice remains incredibly brave, unbelievably selfless and harrowingly dangerous. And it remains, regardless of whether CNN or FoxNews is keeping up on the military’s accomplishments or not.So, without trying to mirror what has been written by so many college papers in the past, it needs to be said: The national news media can and should take a page from Colbert’s book. If only something as simple as 30 minutes a day showing what’s actually happening where these brave men and women are living and working 24 hours a day while we eat sno-balls, ride bikes and frolic (I don’t know, fill in summer things here).Regardless of his reasons, Colbert deserves a bravo for doing something to spark this column and the others like it — for making the troops a talking point in the national media again.Perhaps next time one of the more “serious” news outlets will remind the country of its heros, without being prompted by a man on Comedy Central.Travis Andrews is a 21-year-old English senior from Metairie.—–Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]