Sunday, April 30, 2006
The blogs are a buzz over Stephen Colbert!
Why? Why was Stephen Colbert asked to speak at this dinner? Let's back up a bit. Washington DC, The White House Press Core Dinner, Stephen Colbert begins to take aim at everyone in the room. Pres. Bush is squirming in his seat while the audience is sort of laughing. The white house presses are sort of laughing because Stephen Colbert’s jokes are cutting too close to the bone. Being called a coward but using funnier words is funny and painful. If you know me you know I am interested in awkwardness. You guys have got to see this. Here it is.
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4 comments:
Hi Gian, Instead of clogging your e-mail, I thought I would clog your blog. More views on Colbert. This time from the lefty Wash. Post.
(from opinionjournal.com/best
The Stephen Colbert kerfuffle, intrinsically uninteresting though it is, leads Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen to an excellent insight:
Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask. Because he is representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country. His defenders--and they are all over the blogosphere--will tell you he spoke truth to power. This is a tired phrase, as we all know, but when it was fresh and meaningful it suggested repercussions, consequences--maybe even death in some countries. When you spoke truth to power you took the distinct chance that power would smite you, toss you into a dungeon or--if you're at work--take away your office.
But in this country, anyone can insult the president of the United States. Colbert just did it, and he will not suffer any consequence at all. He knew that going in.
Thank you for not clogging my email. I will not clog yours anymore. I am happy for the five people that read this blog, to see our correspondence. I really like to hear another point of view. By the way I strongly respect your ideas.
It is an amazing thing to see the effect of the blogs on the news. At one moment it was a good time dinner. The President made peace with the white house press core. He was funny when there where two of him. Next the blogs erupt with accusations of miss coverage or non-coverage. Then the news defends itself with news like; Steven Colbert was just not that funny. He lost the comedy contest. That is why we didn’t mention it. The simple fact that the media reacted to the blog editorials must mean something.
There is now another level of checks and balances for American citizens. The first check being the news media. The famous investigative reporter Jack Anderson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson ) felt that the news was how we keep the government in check. The new second check seems to be the “blogosphere”. The news may start to answer to the bloggers. I don’t how I fell about this. On one hand, I like the idea of distributing the power of information to the regular Joe. On the other hand who do I believe? I could find someone that thinks the same and we can believe in “truth” together, in our own world.
If I may, I will speak for all of thoughts fiery liberal bloggers. Yes, it is good that Steven Colbert was not put in prison for what he did. The kerfuffle was more about seeing the president receive a policy critique. You know when you are trying to tell someone something important, you want to get there eye contact. You want a sign that you are understood. I think many of us feel like we are not being understood. There is no sign of “I get the message”. Or maybe President Bush has got the message. And now President Bush doesn’t understand the message. Okay, then this is when he should give us a sign. Maybe a “what are you talking about?” We are part of this country. We have felt ignored. What we saw at the dinner was a message received. There was no filter. I am sorry it was disrespectful. He deserves our respect. But our reaction was “yes, finally we got noticed”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9pIg7KbIPk&feature=Views&page=2&t=t&f=b
Stevens reaction
Daily Show reaction as well.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yMWxaF4zlqk&search=daily%20show%20opening
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