Contact media re: lack of Colbert coverage [View All]

http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=20751

Last week at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, comedian Stephen Colbert delivered a scathing satirical commentary on the Bush Administration -- right in front of President Bush himself. But unless you get your news from online sources such as the blogs, you probably didn't even hear about it.

If you haven't already watched his performance, watch it online now.

It's ironic that at the annual gathering of this nation's elite journalists, the only one with the courage to tell the honest truth was a comedian. It sure speaks volumes to the media's failure to ask the Bush administration hard questions and hold it accountable.

The mainstream media have uncritically served as lapdog stenographers for this administration. So perhaps it's not surprising that they now have decided that Colbert's criticism of the President is not newsworthy. No major paper or television network gave Colbert's performance anything but a cursory mention -- a silence that continues to this day. This certainly wasn't the case back in 1996, when radio deejay Don Imus roasted President and First Lady Clinton with a series of off-color jokes. That event made page one of the New York Times and the front page of the Washington Post Style Section.

So why the silence on Colbert? Were they uncomfortable with his courage in pointing out that the media hasn't been carrying out the independent watchdog role upon which our democracy depends?


Call to action

Tell the mainstream media: please do your jobs as independent watchdogs, and don't leave honest and much-needed criticism of this administration to the comedians.