Comments on: Comedian Makes Pointed Jokes About The President, No Film At 11

[mikezwolf]

Vaughn -- The press colluded with Bush in lying us into war. Many journalists have effectively admitted to it (for example at the time of the Downing Street memos, where the reaction was 'that's not news - we've known it all along'). The press colluded with Bush in many other injuries and horrors (the smear campaigns that got him elected; the lies about the budget and tax cuts, which started during the 2000 campaign with total impunity in the press; the cronyfication of government; war profiteering; the Republican corruption, Abramoff and the K-Street project, and now prostitution; Jeff Gannon, male prostitute in the WH; ripping the Constitution with 'signing statements'; warrantless wiretapping kept under tabs until after the '04 election; and, most of all, torture and disappearances). There was no serious reporting on the WMD lies, but there was breathless reporting from embedded reporters with cool military backdrops. Everybody but the backwash does connect the dots. It may be a parlor game to you, but normal people who still have a soul do connect your actions and omissions directly to the thousands dead and the tens of thousands horrifically maimed and disfigured. You may still one day do penance and be forgiven, but you haven't even started. And it will certainly never be forgotten.

[lhamilton6]

This article sounds like an excuse not to report what is obviously newsworthy. Anything that causes such a stir is newsworthy. Is it true that a poor excuse is better than none?

[blucaller]

I'd like to see ALL the comments, from the beginning. How do you do that here? You're not editing this TOO, are you? Bring back Mary Mapes and Dan Rather. At least the had some integrety and didn't give us this ridiculous "Dog-Ate_My_Homework" routine that you are foisting on us to save face. I was wrong. It's not ACCESS Journalism, it's ABSCESS Journalism. Yuk. I hope you get to keep your seat in the newly reconstructed press room. It ought to be worth about ONE CORPORATE SOUL.

[stclair39]

Ever since the Bush Administration began the so-called liberal press has sucked up to GWB. When they crossed the line and reported anything that might not be liked by the White House they peed in their pants and pulled their punches. Now that the country is begining to awaken to the trainwreck that Bush policy is, the pres are caught flat footed. The vast majority of Americans, those who are not rich, are suffering from the course this uncaring leadership has taken. We now know that we were lied to so that Bush could lead the nation into war. We know know that the Republican controled congress is nothing but a rubber stamp, and that if a law is passed the president doesn't like he ignores it. Yet our so called free press only brushes the edges of stories that are far worse than anything compared to the scandel's of the Clinton Administration and that we heard about daily. I can only assume corruption of the nations press by corporate interests. Of course the press is going to be angered by the presentation by Stephen Colbert. No one likes to be the butt of ridicule, but reporters have put themselves into this position by blindly accepting the Bush party line. The Presidents popularity continue's to sink toward the 20's, we need to remember that he so much of what he has done was with the complicity and aid of the nations press with only few exceptions.

[blucaller]

And since when is Controversy less newsworthy than glad handing? If journalists,or stenographers for that matter understood comedy, they'd probably be writing it. Ooopps! I've seen CBS's prime time line-up. I take it back. But I won't mention it anymore, because I like CBS and I want to protect you.

[alphaa10-2009]

Whether in the media or in the congress or in the House on the Hill, people stop laughing when they realize Colbert is talking about *them*. Then they resume laughing when he veers quickly away from his latest victim to another. This is Colbert's modus operandi. Clearly, the NRO pundit was angry. He "likes" Colbert, but Colbert "wasn't funny". Truth be told, there were many targets at the dinner, and our NRO friend didn't like the target list. Colbert's humor, like that of so many comedians, is often driven by anger, as Colbert himself indirectly admitted in an interview with Morley Safer on 60 Minutes. If you are the object of Colbert's heat for only a moment, you know he has an exquisite sense of how much pain and "truthiness" to inflict. In a time of national anger at Bush and his regime, it is not surprising the public loves Colbert's humor. It is verbal Dilbert, and devastating. It is equally obvious Colbert probably never will do another WH press dinner as long as Shrub and Co. hold power. What a performance from Colbert!

[blucaller]

Wait. What I meant to say was that your theory about sparing Colbert humilliation was really a bunch of face-saving, dog-ate-my-homework drivel.

[blucaller]

The media has a funny and improbable way of showing it if they "like" Steven Colbert. They crave his audiences demographics, they want to seem hip, but NOTHING can stand in the way of their ACCESS to power. We know you're locked out of the White House bowels right now, obstensibly for construction, and we know if you offered even faint praise of Colbert, you'd never get back in. At least not during this Administration. Hasn't Bolton already floated the idea of fewer daily briefings?

[elvent-2009]

Rather than debate whether Colbert was "funny", which is subjective, consider whether he met his objective, which at least can be considered rationally, albeit speculatively. If he wanted simply to amuse the audience, which is probably what they and his bookers expected, then by that measure he failed, "bombed", etc. If he wanted not-so-simply to criticize and discomfit the President and the audience in order to satisfy a need felt by many many people, then he succeeded. Which do you think is more plausible? And if it's the second one, is it then more plausible that some of the targets of his barbs (the media) wish to protect him, or to have him be ignored?

[mikezwolf]

Typo -- 'routing' should be 'routine'.