skippy the bush kangaroo: if you insult the president and no media in the room listens, does it get a laugh?

Monday, May 01, 2006

if you insult the president and no media in the room listens, does it get a laugh?

the big story over the weekend was stephen colbert's big brass ones at the washington's correspondents dinner, where he cleverly insulted awol to his face, using comedy so subtle that absolutely none of the major news media present apparently even knew that colbert was there.

we go to the always-reliable editor&publisher for the backstory:

a blistering comedy “tribute” to president bush by comedy central’s faux talk-show host stephen colbert at the white house correspondent dinner saturday night left george and laura bush unsmiling at its close...

colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk-show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

he attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the white house was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic. “this administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “if anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the hindenburg."

ed&pub continues to relate that awol in particular was not amused:

as colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and first lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling. the president shook his hand and tapped his elbow, and left immediately.

those seated near bush told e&p's joe strupp, who was elsewhere in the room, that bush had quickly turned from an amused guest to an obviously offended target as colbert’s comments brought up his low approval ratings and problems in iraq...

“this was anti-bush,” said one attendee. “usually they go back and forth between us and him.” another noted that bush quickly turned unhappy. “you could see he stopped smiling about halfway through colbert,” he reported.

crooks and liars has the video and the transcript.

but the real story now seems to be the media itself, which is hailing awol's own performance with an awol-impersonator, and almost totally ignoring colbert's cahones.

raw story points out that the nytimes doesn't even mention colbert's appearance.

chris durang at huffpo expounds:

but the mainstream media is apparently ignoring this part of the evening, and instead is covering the early entertainment where bush and a look-alike imitator do a "he says this, he's really thinking this" routine. moderately amusing, but very mild.

this, by the way, is the same washington event where bush previously charmed many (and horrified others) by pretending to have trouble finding weapons of mass destruction (after we'd started to realize they weren't in iraq), and wandered the room looking under tables. really cute, huh? they should send videos of that to the families of soldiers killed.

the media's ignoring colbert's effect at the white house correspondents dinner is a very clear example of what others have called the media's penchant for buying into the conservative/rightwing "narrative"…

...yesterday the blogs were a-buzz with how shocking his remarks were. in his comic persona of bush supporter nonpareil, colbert stood on the dais near the president and kept making eye contact with him as he said truly biting comic remarks...

it's insane journalism not to write about colbert's appearance. it's the main event. like it or hate it, it's the thing to talk about. you have to choose to focus on the lightweight entertainment that preceded it.

the right wing blogs are saying colbert bombed, and in some ways that's not wrong, the gathered audience wanted and expected something lighter - but that's what makes the appearance so startling. it's very witty when you read the text; but actuality as colbert says these things to the president's face, it's very uncomfortable. watching it, it's like hamlet forcing king claudius to watch the play that accuses him of murder. or it's like a man asked to be court jester who shows up and tells the king exactly what's wrong with him, and gets out of the building before they can behead him. (why do i keep having "king" examples, lol. no reason, i'm sure.)

colbert's was a brave and shocking performance. and for the media to pretend it isn't newsworthy is a total bafflement. and a symbol of how shoddy and suspect the media is.

most of the letter writers to ed&pub agreed that colbert did a good job, as do most commentors on the minneapolis city pages.

most telling of all on the media's self-imposed blackout on colbert: a google news search for "colbert" doesn't list any dead-trees media or major network websites.

addendum: wonkette, who thinks the lefty blogs are making too much of this whole thing, none the less nails colbert's performance: "it was actually just a decent standup act with a lousy audience." she also provides a link to thank you stephen colbert where you can add your name to a list of grateful citizens.

posted by skippy at 5:29 PM |