Stephen Colbert's Blistering Performance Mocking
Bush and the Press Goes Ignored by the Media

From Democracy Now:

On Saturday night, over 2,000 journalists, politicians and Washington insiders gathered for the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. President Bush was there and took part in a skit with presidential impersonator Steve Bridges.

And then there was the featured entertainer, Stephen Colbert, the host of the Comedy Central fake news program, The Colbert Report.

If you followed how the corporate press covered the night you might not have even realized Colbert spoke but he gave a talk that repeatedly mocked the President and the press for its failings.

According to the media watchdog group Media Matters, subsequent press coverage focused only on Bush's light-hearted comedy, while omitting mention of Colbert's blistering performance.

And from Colbert's speech:

Most of all, I believe in this president. Now, I know there are some polls out there saying that this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias. So, Mr. President, please, please, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. 32% means the glass -- important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash. Okay.

Click here to watch, read, or listen to the rest (includes video of most of Colbert's speech).

A few thoughts on this.

First, I saw a video clip of the speech Saturday night, but I didn't realize what a firestorm it would create on the left side of the blogoshpere. That's fairly typical of me--I never seem to be able to tell what's going to rouse the crowds. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to posting on it.

Second, I was, indeed, amazed when, on Sunday, I finally heard some coverage of the event, on Fox, and found that they were simply ignoring the most newsworthy aspect of the dinner. No surprise, it's Fox, I thought. But then everybody else ignored it, too. In the rare instances that the corporate media did cover it, it was extraordinarily negative, which was a surprise. Nothing Colbert said was out of line at all: he simply did a good job as a political comedian. That mainstream journalists would have a problem with that says much about how deluded the Washington press corps is--these are the same people who laughed their heads off two years ago at the same event when Bush joked around by pretending to hunt for WMDs in closets and bathrooms. Pathetic.

Finally, Colbert is a comedian, which in my book makes him an artist. That he unflinchingly went for the jugular in this way automatically makes him one of the great Real Artists of our time. I only hope I can bat in his league some day.

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