We may have a solution to the autoplay problem that has been annoying some readers. Thanks to everyone who provided data on whether they had autoplay problems with the embedded videos, the culprits may have been identified. After going through and tabulating all the responses, a pattern emerges and here is what I found.

1. The problem is mainly (perhaps only) with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report clips. Partly this was my fault. Those shows have two embedding codes. When some people complained about autoplay with them a couple of months ago, I changed from one form of embedding to the other, since the latter explicitly said that autoplay was turned off. That was a mistake. I have discovered that switching not only did not solve the old problem but actually created new autoplay problems for those who had not had them before, and even prevented the clips from being seen on iPads and iPhones. I have now gone back to the original embedding format, which should take care of that particular problem.
2. There is no problem with the Macs, which is what I use and is why I did not realize that this annoyance has been going on.
3. The autoplay problem seems to be occurring with people who use Windows or Linux operating systems with Firefox or Chrome browsers. But not everyone with those systems and browsers is having problems, suggesting that the issue lies with add-ons and plug-ins and their settings. The suspects are Noscript, Adblock, Ghostery, Freewheel, and enabling FreethoughtBlogs.
4. Some of the more tech-savvy commenters found out how to adjust the settings on those things so as to remove the autoplay problem and others have followed those suggestions and found that they worked. Please see comments #2,3,4,5,7,8,10,11,13,19,23,25,30,35,37,38,43,47 to that post for what they did.

The catch is that I do not use Windows or Linux or use any of those add-ons (as far as I know), and hence will not be able to answer technical questions. But if you are having difficulty knowing exactly what to do, please post your comments below and those commenters who know this stuff will, I am sure, be willing to help you out with a more detailed tutorial on what to do.

Thanks for your patience.