Wayne Adkins' take on Stephen Colbert's performance raises a point that I haven't seen raised elsewhere, and while not precise, the parallel he draws between Colbert and
Wenyi Wang is not really all that strained, and deserves notice.
After briefly noting the press reaction to Bruce Springsteen in New Orleans last weekend, echoing
James Carroll's characterization of Bush as the "bystander-in-chief", as evidence that the press isn't usually afraid to address entertainers dissing Bush, Adkins continues:
When Wenyi Wang shouted criticisms at China's President Hu during a recent visit to the White House it was news, except in China. The American media covered it extensively and Wang made the news talk show circuit to explain her protest further. But Colbert's satire was directed at President Bush and the press that covers him, not a visiting dignitary. On Iraq Colbert said "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." It amazes me that the main stream media is responding exactly like the Chinese media did in Hu's case. It didn't happen.
Adkins then points out that the press is usually not averse to reporting on others' criticism of it:
I recently attended a speech given by President Bush in West Virginia. During the question and answer after his speech, Gayle Taylor, the wife of an Iraq veteran, stood and told Bush about all of the good news stories that her husband, an Army broadcaster, had brought home from Iraq. She criticized the main stream media for not showing the positive things going on in Iraq. Taylor was interviewed after the event and made several appearances on network news shows to further explain her criticisms. This is an example of the media reporting criticism of the media. Why aren't they doing this in Colbert's case? The "truthiness" hurts.
Indeed. The MSM isn't hiding Colbert's performance just because it's criticism of them, or because it's criticism of the President. The MSM is hiding Colbert's performance because it is hard-hitting, accurate criticism, and because people hearing it are unlikely to dismiss it as fluff, because people hearing it will know in their gut that it is accurate.
The corporate-controlled MSM are deeply ashamed of how Colbert held the mirror up to their corrupt ugliness, just as the government-controlled Chinese press is deeply ashamed of the truth embodied in Wenyi Wang, and both must therefore pretend that the truth-teller does not exist.
In the end, it all comes down to this:
If anything, the Washington press, Helen Thomas aside, has confirmed what Colbert asserted in such a funny way, Bush makes decisions, the Press Secretary announces them, and the press corps types. Colbert’s presentation of it was funny. The reality of it isn’t.
Adkins' piece is my first exposure to American Chronicle, but if this is an example of the kind of writing they offer, I'll be visiting the site more often.