Stephen Colbert and the Media Approach

This article appeared May 1 on the "Huffington Post." By Nathan Gardels, the Editor in Chief of the sometimes thoughtful and widely read NPQ, it suggested that the President, making fun of himself, was funnier than Colbert. (This also raised the question as to whether a President poking fun at himself really should have this much material to work with, and whether some of the material really should have been funny; points overlooked by Gardels).

His initial comment, "For those of us in the smart political set who are right about Bush being wrong," certainly justified the provocative and often caustic responses that a rabid (sometimes knee jerk left wing, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes bitingly sharp and right on) crowd of commenters threw back at him. Interestingly, this editor's more mild, but more inclusive, comment was not published:

That's the problem right there: The "smart political set." The set that knows so much that it keeps ignoring the relevant issues, and then after getting defeated in the 2004 election because it allowed its opponents to mischaracterize the other side, whined about it, blamed conservative "lies," or, even worse, the voters -- rather than the "smart political set's" inability to effectively (A) expose such "lies," establish the underlying points, and undermine their mischaracterizing political opponents' credibility therein, (B) communicate with middle America, let alone know what needed to be communicated, and (C) stop a relative handful of dominant right wing conservatives from continuing to mischaracterize them, dominate the mainstream debate, and henpeck the sometimes sheep like media into order.

This kind of talk is unpopular with the "smart set," because it's always everybody else's fault, never theirs.

On the more left leaning, but sometimes insightful, "thinkprogress.org," one commenter had this to say about Colbert's bit:

It was not suppposed to be funny…what it was supposed to do was expose the ridiculous lengths the right-wing and the press go to shield the President from unpleasant realities.

Overstated, but some truth?

Colbert's best line:

The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them 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."

Consider it in light of some of the issues that are raised herein.