Instead of a fearless social critic, this year's host was the easy-to-dance-to late night host Conan O'Brien. We had to wait a couple of minutes for the first political joke aimed at the president:
"The
president is hard at work creating jobs. Since he was elected, the
number of popes has doubled and the number of Tonight Show
That was it for the next sixteen minutes. O'Brien made polite jokes about the media and took a few mild pokes at the luminaries present. It wasn't awful, it was just boring.
In 2006, things were different at the establishment love-in. The entertainer poking fun of the president was so on target and devastating, there is little doubt that it will ever happen again.
Somehow, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report was invited as the guest entertainer in 2006. Colbert plays a right wing screw ball television host on nightly right after the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. If anyone at the White House had watched the Colbert Report, they would have instantly vetoed Colbert. If they knew that Colbert and Stewart were partners in humor, a pervasive sense of dread would have draped the West Wing.
The speech caused quite a storm. Colbert produced a twenty minute monologue that told the truth about Bush in ways nobody was willing to tell it in a high profile setting. The president was clearly appalled, the laughter was limited, and Colbert was utterly brilliant.
The material below shows us what public events can be like when the president and the people who run this country into the ground are forced to look into a mirror:
"But,
listen [correspondents], let's review the rules. Here's how it works:
the president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary
announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those
decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check
and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife.
Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one
about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to
the administration. You know - fiction!" Stephen Colbert, April 30, 2006
The Colbert routine ranks as one of the great examples of speaking truth to power. In this case, the truth was devastating humor and the power was corrupt. Things have improved marginally in some areas, but the current administration carries on the broad policies of war, austerity, and coddling the ultra-wealthy that were the object of Colbert's scathing satire. The speech is well worth watching. The event is worth updating in some way to shine a bright light on the hypocrisy of the current administration.
Stephen Colbert At The White House Correspondents Dinner
END
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