I'm now officially sick of the Colbert story
Now that the MSM is finally paying attention, they're pretty much exclusively using the story to remind the rest of us how smart and capable they are. Only it isn't going that well.
You know you're in for some serious unfunniness with an opening line like this:
First, let me state my credentials: I am a funny guy.
That's the WaPo's Richard Cohen, who goes on to select a few transitional lines within larger gags to demonstrate not only Colbert's purported unfunniness, but that he's "rude and a bully." And he's supremely confident that people bright enough to read Richard Cohen columns must be bright enough to completely agree:
Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask.
Moving on. On CNN, one Martha Zoller decided that "although [Colbert] probably didn't even think about that," his mention of Tuesday as a day between Monday and Wednesday was an insensitive belittling of the tragedy of 9/11. Apparently the press has learned all to well at the knee of this administration-- first you come up with your conclusion, then you manipulate the facts to support it.
And, amazingly, a third New Republic writer has felt compelled to chime in (although he mercifully spares bloggers, unlike his colleagues), referring to the incident as "a public relations coup" for Bush. Call me crazy, but I have my doubts that Americans are going to say 'forget gas prices and immigration-- did you see the way our brave president just sat there and took it last Saturday?' And once again, the commentors on the post have thankfully pointed out how unnecessary, and just plain sad, it is that the site has seen fit to post multiple nasty reviews.
And as I wrote before, all these articles do for me is highlight the facile nature of the press corps. After competing to laugh the loudest at Bush's zany WMD search or the genuinely creepy sight of a Bush impersonator talking about how "muy caliente" the First Lady is, they've been whipped into a frenzy after being satirized themselves. Not that you'd know that from reading these articles. Although they selflessly defend the dignity of George W. Bush (I know, I can't believe it either), there's still no acknowledgment of the fact that they were just as much in Colbert's crosshairs as anyone in the White House. And that's the very issue he was spoofing in the first place.
You know you're in for some serious unfunniness with an opening line like this:
First, let me state my credentials: I am a funny guy.
That's the WaPo's Richard Cohen, who goes on to select a few transitional lines within larger gags to demonstrate not only Colbert's purported unfunniness, but that he's "rude and a bully." And he's supremely confident that people bright enough to read Richard Cohen columns must be bright enough to completely agree:
Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask.
Moving on. On CNN, one Martha Zoller decided that "although [Colbert] probably didn't even think about that," his mention of Tuesday as a day between Monday and Wednesday was an insensitive belittling of the tragedy of 9/11. Apparently the press has learned all to well at the knee of this administration-- first you come up with your conclusion, then you manipulate the facts to support it.
And, amazingly, a third New Republic writer has felt compelled to chime in (although he mercifully spares bloggers, unlike his colleagues), referring to the incident as "a public relations coup" for Bush. Call me crazy, but I have my doubts that Americans are going to say 'forget gas prices and immigration-- did you see the way our brave president just sat there and took it last Saturday?' And once again, the commentors on the post have thankfully pointed out how unnecessary, and just plain sad, it is that the site has seen fit to post multiple nasty reviews.
And as I wrote before, all these articles do for me is highlight the facile nature of the press corps. After competing to laugh the loudest at Bush's zany WMD search or the genuinely creepy sight of a Bush impersonator talking about how "muy caliente" the First Lady is, they've been whipped into a frenzy after being satirized themselves. Not that you'd know that from reading these articles. Although they selflessly defend the dignity of George W. Bush (I know, I can't believe it either), there's still no acknowledgment of the fact that they were just as much in Colbert's crosshairs as anyone in the White House. And that's the very issue he was spoofing in the first place.
posted by Matt Sandwich | 11:45 AM
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