Stephen Colbert’s stunning truth telling "truthiness" at last Saturday’s White House Correspondents‘ Dinner did not go over well with the Bushes. That much is understandable. After all, he tore Bush to shreds, standing four feet away. But why are the media folks so miffed? There has been a virtual black-out of Colbert in all major media coverage of the event. What little has been covered was used to inform us that he "bombed" like David Letterman at the Oscars! The footage of Bush and his Doppelganger doing their "safe" routine for predictable laughs has been shown again and again. No sign of Stephen Colbert and his fifteen minutes of first rate edgy humor based solely on the actual record of the Bush administration. But it was not the type of humor that an audience consisting mostly of the members of the press, wanted to hear. His jabs hit too close to home. This is what Colbert had to say about the ineffectuality of the press.
"Let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know–fiction."
So they are dismissing him as "unfunny." A room full of adults laughed uproariously when Laura Bush told sophomoric jokes about her sex life at last year’s dinner. Yet Colbert’s grown up satire and irony had them pursing their lips with displeasure like so many Victorian prudes. Were they afraid to be seen laughing lest they incur the wrath of the president and his handlers? Or is it that the mainstream press has become so cozy with the government that instead of being an objective investigative body, it has turned into the government’s gatekeeper, upset that an outsider like Colbert did in fifteen minutes what its own members had failed to do in five years?
The bloggers have noticed and they are writing about the obvious hypocrisy of the big media. Here are two good comments from the Daily Kos and the Daou Report. The mainstream media may pretend that Stephen Colbert never happened but we saw him and we will remember.
Accidental Blogger 
4 responses to “The Colbert Cover Up”
I think the mainstream media has felt intimidated since the World Trade Center attacks. I believe our current president is of a different breed than those from the past… that he is much more ruthless and prone to punishing those who disagree than past presidents have been. I think a good deal of the press giving up its watchdog role has been due to a fear of retribution. If the room was one full of silent people, many were probably thinking “Oh no! The president will be angry!”
I’m not sure what the administration could do to the mainstream media, though. Not without it getting reported, anyway! I hope they don’t have a body bag waiting somewhere for Colbert… I find him to be a breath of fresh air in a stale political climate that continues to need fresh air.
“…upset that an outsider like Colbert did in fifteen minutes what its own members had failed to do in five years?”
That could well be part of it too. You always make very astute observations, and that one is another that could be very close to the heart of the matter. I think people are beginning to learn that if the media won’t do its job, others will have to step up, whether they be actors, comedians, retired generals, former members of the current administration, etc.
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Snave:
I don’t think that the White House will have the guts to go after Colbert – not with Bush tanking in the polls. But who knows? The NSA may already be tapping his phone!
The line between the establishment and the watchdog has been blurred. That is why the press was made uncomfortable by Colbert’s merciless truthiness. They had settled down with their martinis for an evening of comfortable inside the beltway jokes and gladhanding. Instead, Colbert came and blew the cover off the mutual backscratching that has replaced objective reportage. The big wig media are painfully aware of their own culpability in letting this out of control administration go on its rampage. Colbert pointed that out. How could the media stars swallow that televised slap on the face?
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That was a riot. Pretty funny.
Makes me recall the sad situation in India, imagine any of them tolerating this kind of trashing. Ok. Bush made faces but he would have been less than human if he was not affected by such ribbing.
About Bush coming after Colbert, now thats a strech. It really is.
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