Like many of you, I've been periodically checking to see how Colbert's performance is being covered by Traditional Media. From what I've seen recently it looks like the wall of silence is starting to crack.
Most articles are still focused on Bush's 'hilarious' 'skewering' of himself, though a couple mention Colbert and Dan Froomkin even reports what actually went on.
Follow for a brief account of various sources...
Let's start for the hell of it with the UK's
Telegraph, which doesn't mention Colbert's performance at all. What was quoteworthy from the evening in their view?
Mr Bush took the podium alongside look-a-like and sound-a-like Steve Bridges, who proceeded to make jokes about vice president Dick Cheney's hunting accident and the president's low approval ratings.
"How come I can't have dinner with the 36 per cent of the people who like me?" Bridges said as Mr Bush looked out at the audience.
Funny stuff.
Next we move to the Guardian's Wiseguy Bush sends in the clones. It begins:
It was a shock, especially for those who are not fans of the president. On the platform at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, standing together at the podium, was not one George Bush, but two.
Yeah, wow, shocking. Apparently there was some confusion in the audience for a time as to who the real Bush was. Saddam used to love that trick.
Anyway, if you read long enough in the article, past the standard bullshit about the White House dinner, they do eventually get to a brief bit on Colbert:
Mr Bush smiled constantly during the 15-minute sketch, which was greeted throughout with applause and laughter. Having rehearsed the sketch, he knew what was coming. But he did not know about the skit that followed, a critique of his presidency by the political satirist Steven Colbert. Colbert made jokes about the elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, opportunistic pictures on aircraft carriers and the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina.
Castigating Mr Bush for not changing policy even when circumstances demanded it, he said: "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."
Colbert was scathing about Mr Bush's failures in Iraq. "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."
Mr Bush's grin became increasingly fixed. At the end of Colbert's sketch he and Laura gave him quick nods and left the platform unsmiling.
Moving on to the San Francisco Chronicle we find a brief mention of Colbert contextualizes in the typical trivializing fashion:
The featured entertainer was Stephen Colbert, whose Comedy Central show "The Colbert Report" often lampoons the Washington establishment.
"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq," Colbert said in a typical zinger.
He also paid mock tribute to Bush as a man who "believes Wednesday what he believed Monday, despite what happened Tuesday."
Yet it's the Who's Who of power and celebrity in the audience -- invited by media organizations to their dinner tables -- that draws much of the attention.
Note the lovely use of passive voice. Sure Colbert was the featured entertainer, but it's the Who's Who of power and celbrity
that draws much of the attention.
Fascinating.
The headline from the UK's Scotsman's article on the dinner says all you need to know about their coverage: Two-faced Bush has last laugh as he confronts top critic: himself.
USNews & World Report has a brief article entirely on how Colbert's performance angered Bush and his aides. Just to be safe, it ends with this interesting bit:
Aides and reporters, however, said that it did not overshadow Bush's own funny routine, which featured an impersonator who told the audience what Bush was thinking when he spoke dull speech lines.
In fact, some aides crowed over reports that the president easily bested Colbert in the reviews of both comedy acts.
Wow - both aides
and reporters agreed that Colbert was easily bested. It's interesting to have an example of how flimsy official reality can be. As I've written in a comment elsewhere, Bush's bit will be forgotten by next week, while Colbert's satire will only gain in stature. Bush talks about playing for history. Colbert actually did it.
Finally, the best article I've found so far in the MSM is WaPo Dan Froomkin's All Kidding Aside:
President Bush on Saturday night had the audience at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in stitches. With doppelganger comedian Steve Bridges alongside -- playing his inner self -- Bush poked gentle fun of his own mangling of the English language, his belligerence and his feelings about the media.
Then Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert ripped those stitches out.
Colbert was merciless, reserving his most potent zingers for the people in spitting distance: The president who took the nation to war on false pretenses and the press corps that let him do it.
He quotes quite a bit from the performance, as well as covering reaction to it on the blogs (including this one).
Worth reading.