The Colbert Report retort
OK, I'll admit it. Years ago -- during the Reagan presidency -- I was invited by my boss in Boston to fly to Washington to attend the White House Correspondents Association dinner. In fact, he was taking the whole editorial staff then. I was young. I was stupid. I passed.
It wasn't that I didn't think Washington in April would be cool. It's that I was 20-something.... and didn't own a tuxedo, and the prospect of walking into a rental store to buy one would require me to admit that I didn't know anything about formal tuxedos for Washington galas. This -- at this time in my life -- was equivalent to pulling over at the SuperAmerica now and asking for directions.
Surely, I would end up with some frilly thing that would result in me being banned from society forever for looking too much like Sal Mineo. I'm not without the ability to see into the future, folks. A few years later, when I was married, the church broke out in laughter when we kneeled near the end of the ceremony because the tuxedo joint (or maybe I rented it from The Tuxedo Joint, I forget), wrote inventory numbers on the bottom of the shoes, which -- in polite society -- is equivalent to writing "I'm a dork!"
So I made up a story about having an inner ear problem and not being able to fly and I stayed home (another glimpse into the future: years later -- now -- I actually do have an inner ear problem and can't fly. But I digress).
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The White House Correspondents Dinner, even by Washington standards, brings out the big guns. But its value has always been , up until recently, that everything's off the record. For one day, a few hours, it's just a bunch of folks in, roughly, the same line of work, having some fun, usually at the expense of the president who attends.
That's changed. Now C-SPAN broadcasts it live, and it's become a real news event. And, well, it's hard to keep the wraps on something when it involves about 500 reporters and the President of the United States.
So I think the good times are probably over for the event.
I say this because of the fuss over the alleged attempt by MSM not to cover the "Colbert story." Salon insists its another mainstream media cover-up of a failed presidency. Editor and Publisher has a somewhat more staid approach to its coverage.
What? You've never seen The Colbert Report? This is what he does and I'm guessing -- although I could be wrong (at least until the future) -- that the folks who signed him knew that because that's what this event has always been. Biting and satirical. (See City Pages article). But he may not be invited back.
Salon takes the mainstream media apart for failing to "report" on Colbert. The problem with reporting on satire, of course, is when you write it down and repeat it in another voice, it isn't satire anymore.
Plus, they'd screw it up if they tried.
As for the future, this tip for the president: get yourself a phony inner ear problem.