Amazing how the word gets out, though, in spite of it.  For example, there are now 32,189 thank yous on the Thank You Stephen Colbert website.

 And that probably translates as millions of people who at least know about and even saw Colbert's speech.

http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/

I recall Howard Dean making some comments in the same vein, just before he was swift-boated out of the race.

Even worse. If memory serves, not only did Howard want to reinstate the fairness doctrine, he wanted to reinstitute a lot of media ownership rules to cut back on the abuses by (for example) Clear Channel.

I worry that Colbert will have his wings clipped over this. It's not nice to point out that the Emperor (in this case, the media) is wearing nothing.

This is an important issue, and one that should be bandied about until more folks know more about it -- even just discussing the issue itself should get more people to react with more of a discerning air concerning their news (particularly in our current climate).

The pundits are running scared.  Folks aren't taking them at face value anymore, and -- for them -- it's painfully obvious that their "beauty" has only been skin deep; their "ugly" goes straight to the bone.

Never, never brave me, nor my fury tempt:
  Downey wings, but wroth they beat
Tempest even in reason's seat.

I know what bombing looks like. It looks like Don Imus when he did a standup monologue before President and Hillary Clinton, and went over so badly that sweat broke out in rivulets down his face and in parts unseen. What triggered the perspiration cascade was a sexual innuendo about how Clinton rooted for his favorite football team by yelling, "Go baby!" at the TV, which Imus remarked was probably not the first time he had voiced such a giddyup--an allusion to Clinton's poontang exploits, if you'll pardon the expression. Imus gave such a crass performance and caused such embarrassment to himself and everybody in the room that there were calls for apologies and he was in danger of being as contaminated as Whoopie Goldberg and Ted Danson briefly were after their unfortunate blackface episode. jameswolcott.com

He calls Colbert a real pro who performed his piece of satire with ease and aplomb, without self-deprecation, never bothering that most of his lines were not getting laughs...

He says of NYT's reporter:
"Elisabeth Bumiller seems to have slept through face-down in her entree."

Mr. Colbert is too good for the corporate media. They would not know how to describe him.


To thine own self be true. W.S.

To begin with, the Bush routine was pretty surreal in and of itself.

Then Mr. Colbare barges right in, and bares his ass right in the powdered faces of our corrupt, effeminate, degenerate, immoral, dullwitted and humorless elites.

Mr. Colbare delivered a loud, sustained, noxious fart--the kind where the odor seems to hang in the air for eternity and in your nose memory even longer. The kind the elites never smell coming off their own powdered asses.

A courageous piece of work.

That was the most humiliating of all performances I have ever seen in my life.

What is interesting is that most of the media has still missed the point he was making. His Bush remarks were just the warm up for his real target - the press.

His extended video showing him running away from the only person to have asked a real question in the recent past (Helen Thomas) was his real message. That the press fell down on reporting his criticism of the press, having fallen down on reporting about Iraq, shows that they still don't (or won't) "get it".

Policies not Politics
--- Daily Landscape

If Rep. Hoyer had come out in favour of Colbert's sketch, it wouldn't have gotten as much newsplay. After all, the journalists themselves want this to disappear, as it pointed out how much they have become lapdogs to the current regime.

But to make people aware of why Rep. Hoyer's remarks are pertinent, the news shows will bring clips of it, online news sources will have "See the controversial clip here" links and similar ways that the general public can find out about it.

Not only that, but the criticism is one that he can spin into praise later. After all, he did say that he thought some of it was funny. Maybe later he could say that it was too rough because it hit too close to home. There's plenty of spin room in his remarks.

This is feint-and-jab politics. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the old boxer Harry Reid came up with the idea of Hoyer making that comment just to stir up coverage of a sketch the press was too ashamed to report about.

The above post makes more sense if you look at the fnords first