Iyow - in your own words

Well, yes, if you are Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

I can’t help but wonder how the hell Colbert got this gig in the first place? Did they learn nothing from seeing Jon Stewart on Crossfire? Did they miss that? Did the organizers simply never bother to watch Colbert’s show, or did they just think that he would be different when faced with the President in person?

As fabulous as his speech and skit were, I really enjoyed the shots of various people in the audience. Some looked angry, of course, but so many more looked confused: vaguely uncomfortable, a little scared, and trying not to laugh. Although Valerie Plame at least seemed kind of amused.

Colbert’s performance is very much worth a watch if you are one of the ten people on the internet who haven’t seen it yet.

Yesterday Colbert went out of character to give an interview that’s also worth a read.

I do hope this picks up some more traction in the press. I don’t believe for a moment that this will affect in any way the President or his administration, or for that matter the hardcore right wingers or Fox News.

But I think what Colbert said and did could serve as a watershed moment for the members of the press as a whole, maybe forcing some of the real journalists (you know, the ones who maybe became journalists because of Woodward and Bernstein and their ilk) to take a deeper look at what they are producing and push themselves to do better.