The LA Times reports that Stephen Colbert is “thrilled” to hear a majority of conservatives don’t know that he’s making fun of them. A recent Ohio State University study confirmed what I long suspected. But that’s only half the story. The second part of this story is an example of how stupid our media is.
Rebecca Ascher-Walsh writes in The LA Times:
Perhaps his most public gaffe was his 2006 performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner, where a stunned audience listened to him reel off lines about then-President Bush such as, “Events can change; this man’s beliefs never will.”
Gaffe?
That wasn’t a gaffe! It was on purpose, lady. It was indescribably brave. That wasn’t a gaffe, that was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen on Television in my entire life.
Colbert mocked George Bush and the assembled media to their faces. That neither butt of his joke laughed at themselves or each other doesn’t make it a gaffe, it only makes it better.
When Colbert delivered his well-crafted monologue of vicious, bitter mockery, directly to the objects of his scorn, his fans cheered for him. There’s three possibilities for this writer’s use of the word ‘gaffe.’
1. She doesn’t know what a gaffe is.
NOTE: (A gaffe is when Sarah Palin mixes up DesMoines and Davenport Iowa, calling one the other. OTOH, it’s not a gaffe when Sarah Palin doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is — that’s called stupidity.)
2. The LATimes editors are still peeved about Colbert’s mockery, and so as to delegitimize the truth of Colbert’s attack, they dismiss his monologue as some sort of near-miss performance.
3. The writer just might be as confused about Colbert as the subjects of the Ohio State University study, because nobody who actually understands Colbert’s act can possibly think this this is a gaffe:
Stephen Colbert at White House Correspondents Dinner
