Media Blinders

One of the points "fake" journalist Stephen Colbert told the Washington Post recently about the passiveness of the press is that "there's a sense that if they engaged in what we do at 'The Daily Show,' they'd be accused of being too aggressive."

Carole Coleman would probably agree with that. In an article in the Sunday Times Review, Coleman (the Irish Journalist from RTE who had the gumption to ask Bush tough questions during an interview in 2004 resulting in the White House complaining to the Irish Embassy) relives the interview and the reaction she received from the White House.

Coleman was criticized for actually asking tough questions, as opposed to the "On Bended Knee" approach used too often in America. However Coleman said filmmaker Michael Moore was among those who noted her work.

"In the end, doesn't it always take the Irish to speak up?" he said. "She's my hero. Where are the Carole Colemans in the US press?"

Possibly only on the Daily Show but unfortunately they are dismissed too easily by the establishment press. When Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. was asked why more reporters aren't aggressive like Colbert, Downie dismissively, and cluelessly responded "The Daily Show is entertainment and satire, not news, and Colbert's comments are part of the entertainment."

However the Post's own Media Critic admitted that the Daily Show does makes news and that the methods they use, well, the non-fake journalists ought to be doing the same thing.

But too many haven't and it's the reason it has taken nearly five years for the public to figure out Bush and are now watching the White House implode. Perhaps if there were more reporters like Carole Coleman and Stephen Colbert the American people would have wised up long ago.