The Truthiness Will Set You Free

Stephen Colbert's Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report (both with a silent "t"), has begun to challenge The Daily Show (at least in my estimation) as TV's must-see political snark-fest. It still needs to work on its consistency, and Colbert's interviewing skills still need to be honed (but so did Jon Stewart's in his first year at the DS helm). But when it's on, brothah, it's on. Here are a couple of clips to, hopefully, back me up on this--last week's ThreatDown (which positioned Tom Hanks as the #1 threat to America), a segment o Global Warming, and his much blogsphere discussed take-down of Bill Kristol. (Also, check out his faux Colbert Nation web site and his influence on the English language at Wikipedia.)

With Colbert's star rising, he was invited to the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner to do his biting shtick as his Bill O'Reilly wannabe character. And according to Editor and Publisher, there was considerable bite, enough to leave "George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close." Here are a couple of pieces from the routine as noted by E&P (Crooks and Liars has the video):

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face—“and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”

[...]

He also reflected on the alleged good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.

Addressing the reporters, he said, "Let's review the rules. 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. 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."

The reaction--not so boistrous:

Those seated near Bush told E&P's Joe Strupp, who was elsewhere in the room, that Bush quickly turned from an amused guest to an obviously offended target as Colbert’s comments brought up his low approval ratings and problems in Iraq.

Several veterans of past dinners, who requested anonymity, said the presentation was more directed at attacking the president than in the past. Several said previous hosts, like Jay Leno, equally slammed both the White House and the press corps.

“This was anti-Bush,” said one attendee. “Usually they go back and forth between us and him.” Another noted that Bush quickly turned unhappy, and left the dais shortly after while most seated near him, including Colbert and Snow, glad-handed the crowd. “You could see he stopped smiling about halfway through Colbert,” he reported.

[...]

Strupp, in the crowd during the Colbert routine, had observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much speaking "truthiness" to power.