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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/washington/18memo.html?_r=1&oref=sloginWhite House Memo
No Offense Intended With This Year’s Choice of Entertainer, but Still an Outcry
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: April 18, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 17 —
.... He has been on the receiving end of some tough jokes since his appointment was announced this year. “Bob Hope Sadly Too Dead to Headline WCHA Dinner,” read the headline on Wonkette.com. Under the heading “A ‘Little’ cowardice for the White House Correspondents Association dinner,” The Carpetbagger Report wrote, “As a rule, when you have to say, ‘My dad loved him’ to sell a performer, you’ve probably picked the wrong guy.’ ”
Mr. Little’s comments to The Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had no plans to mention Iraq and that association officials “don’t want anyone knocking the president,” stoked the blog firestorm that much more, and he and the association have since denied that he had agreed to any restrictions on what he could say.
In an interview from Nevada this week, Mr. Little, a Canadian, said that he preferred a nonpartisan and unoffensive approach to comedy. He readily acknowledges he harks back to a time before the Internet, before cable, and before the era of off-color, no-holds-barred comedy that rose as his profile faded. ....
...He said when he imitates Mr. Bush at Saturday’s dinner, “It won’t be anything on him personally. I don’t do that anyway, and I think it would be in bad taste.”
Mr. Little said he did not fault Mr. Colbert for his performance last year, though he said he disagreed with his approach: “I don’t care what your beliefs are politically, when you’ve got a man sitting there, you’ve got to use some judgment.” ....
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