After ignoring Stephen Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday night (try to find any mention of Colbert in the Times article) but finding the public flocking to the Internet to view the clip, the Washington Typists have decided to say Colbert "fell flat" perhaps in hopes that public won't be tempted to check it out.
Instead, just as Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire signaled the end of that show, could Colbert's performance may change the way the media acts?
The problem with Colbert's talk was that it hit too close to home for Bush and the media, leaving them unamused. But what did people really expect? Colbert's shtick is to act like a conservative blowhard who thinks he knows a lot but in reality is clueless, perhaps a little too much like Bush and the many in the media.
And so when Colbert makes the follow statement, media people are not amused.
"Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!"
The reaction of the press was probably similar to Tucker Carlson on Stewart after he had reduced the show to ashes.
"Wait. I thought you were going to be funny. Come on. Be funny," Carlson pleaded to Stewart.
Anyone who has watched The Daily Show probably has seen a skit that may have been over the top and one ends up feeling slightly sorry for the person being interviewed because of their cluelessness. Saturday night was not one of those days. Perhaps the video skit, replayed on The Colbert Report Tuesday night to good reviews, went on too long, but the speech was funny.
The problem conservatives and the Washington Typists face is that the Internet gives people the chance to both view the performance and read the transcript. So while the media can claim it wasn't funny, just as thousands later viewed Stewart's appearance on Crossfire, thousands have also viewed Colbert's performance and found the following comments to be funny or satirical.
I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument. I call it the "No Fact Zone." Fox News, I hold a copyright on that term.
I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.
But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias.
I've never been a fan of books. I don't trust them. They're all fact, no heart. I mean, they're elitist, telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen. Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was built in 1914? If I want to say it was built in 1941, that's my right as an American! I'm with the president, let history decide what did or did not happen.
But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason: they're super-depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished. Over the last five years you people were so good -- over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.
It's like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, by the way, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is.
We can't forget the man of the hour, new press secretary, Tony Snow. Secret Service name, "Snow Job."
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