Media Matters: Media touted Bush's routine, ignored Colbert's skewering

[Dudley_DUright]

Summary: Following the White House Correspondents' dinner, numerous news outlets trumpeted President Bush's performance at the event, but entirely ignored the scathing routine delivered by the night's featured entertainer, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. In his act, Colbert mocked the White House's current woes, slammed a wide range of Bush administration policies, and lampooned the mainstream media.

Following the annual awards dinner of the White House Correspondents Association held on April 29, numerous news outlets trumpeted President Bush's performance at the event. But in turn, many outlets entirely ignored the scathing routine delivered by the night's featured entertainer, Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. In his act, Colbert mocked the White House's current woes, slammed a wide range of Bush administration policies, and lampooned the mainstream media.

During his 20-minute routine at the April 29 dinner, Colbert appeared in character as the bombastic, Bush-supporting cable news host that he plays nightly on The Colbert Report. Colbert mimicked the administration's often over-the-top optimism, saying, "This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!" He touted the numerous problems currently plaguing the White House and advised Bush on how to handle each of them. On Bush's dismal poll numbers, Colbert commented, "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." Referring to the rising criticism of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Colbert said, "I've got a theory about how to handle these retired generals causing all this trouble: don't let them retire! Come on, we've got a stop-loss program; let's use it on these guys."

much more...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605010005

[ComerPerro]

1. I haven't actually seen Bush's piece, but I can picture it

Probably pathetic, and accompanied by nervous, fake, insincere laughter.

[Nomad559]

2. You can view It here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x25693

:)

[Supersedeas]

3. a piece exposing the media as shills is underexposed???

[AndreaCG]

4. Yet another letter to the Times that they will never print

It is typical of the myopia of New York Times' reporters and editors that Elisabeth Bumiller's coverage of the White House Correspondent's dinner didn't mention Steven Colbert's blistering routine, which skewered both George W. Bush and the lapdog White House press.
I guess if you can't take the heat, pretend the fire never happened. Or to quote Mr. Colbert, rearrange the deck chairs on the Hindenberg.

[Hidden Stillness]

5. It Never Happened

I skipped watching the Correspondents' Dinner on C-SPAN on Saturday, because I just assumed it would be like Al Franken, where you hope for some real skewering truth, and you get...lame. They replayed it on Sunday afternoon and I flipped to it exactly when Stephen Colbert was already on. I heard the Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame jokes, a few others, and with increasing joy and cheering, caught the wonderful, classy tribute video to Helen Thomas; very accurate. I wish C-SPAN would rebroadcast it so I can tape it, and I flipped around the "news" to await the coverage of what seemed this historical event, the turning of the tide. Nothing--absolutely nothing. There were half-assed clips of Bush and some "comedy" double, and no reference at all to what had happened, even though the excited audience itself was the "news" media. After a whole day of this non-reporting, it is like the same corporate-media fairy dust has been sprinkled over this too, as always happens to Democrats, to the Dixie Chicks, Linda Ronstadt, etc., etc.--it never happened. Remember, about the heart-pounding excitement of the Stephen Colbert routine at the Correspondent's Dinner: that was how people used to talk, publicly, to power, all the time, before this current, corporate era.