The Truthiness Hurts

Yesterday I was at an event where a very prominent Republican Senator's wife was the honorary chair. I was chatting with her briefly and she mentioned something in the news that I hadn't seen. I replied "No, Mrs. Blank, I haven't seen that. I usually only watch 'The Colbert Report' for my national news." When that was received with a glare that I'd never seen come from this woman, I quickly followed up with "Uh, and NBC News. Love that Brian Williams!"

See my first answer was truthful and not intended to be offensive. The second only wreaked of truthiness. But most people might not have heard about Stephen Colbert's recent foray into political purgatory. He hosted the White House's Correspondents' Dinner this year and used his time to sufficiently skewer the media and president. Apparently the reports have come out the president was pissed off and the media none too happy. In fact, one outlet claimed that the president that made mental notes of those who laughed.

My first question was: Had ANYONE on the president's staff or in the media seen 'The Colbert Report' at all? I mean, come ON people. Was Colbert supposed to NOT do what he does on a regular basis? Couldn't the '60 Minutes' crew have clued them in by telling someone in the White House the "I don't really have a respect for authority" quote from his interview?

But let's get down to another issue. TIME magazine has decided to challenge the bloggers that have stuck up for Colbert by pointing out their errors in writing. Yet they also decided it wasn't cool when Colbert did that to the media in general. Besides, are bloggers really supposed to be held to the same standards of reporting as professionals? Take a look around the "blogosphere." It just doesn't happen. They also point out that contrary to what bloggers think PLENTY of media did report on his antics.

Well, not really. The interview '60 Minutes' did was after his hosting gig. One can only assume that the reason for the interview was it's timeliness in conjunction to the White House Dinner (the interview ran the day after). Nothing at all was mentioned. In fact, I'd be betting that there were some long editing sessions surrounding the piece to cut out any mention of last Saturday night's affair.

Besides that, most TV news segments centered around the lame guy doing the impersonation of Bush on the podium next to the President. In fact, the Today show even ran that segment again later on in the week when they interviewed the First Lady.

The actual running of Colbert's "inflammatory" comments ran in stories later on in the week when the story became less about the comments themselves than about the fact they weren't being aired.

I have say that I respect Colbert more now than ever. It's the ultimate testament to the old adage, "If you want to say something about me, say it to my face." He said to the President's face and for that, hats off to you. Sometimes the truthiness hurts. And that's the Word.