The Colbert Conundrum & Bill O'Reilly - What's Not Being Said

[keopeli]

Any of us who have been watching the main stream media with disdain for years and who have trolled around DU for a long time will recognize the pattern of deception mounted by the press over Colbert's blistering satire of GWB and the Media. The same bunch of us will be thrilled by the way we have managed to nudge the Media into an awkward position of covering a story they don't want to cover. This is certainly new to our culture and a welcome change.

It seems to me that the most glaring omission, both in the main stream media and on the internet, was the satire of O'Reilly and talking heads of his ilk. Colbert used the tone, style and verbiage of some of the most lauded FOX news commentators and radio personalities. If O'Reilly had been the invited guest rather than Colbert, wouldn't the speech have been much the same (without the Helen Thomas video)? Surely O'Reilly would recount Bush's touted successes and strengths and, even more significantly, he would do it all with a straight face - exactly like Colbert did.

I think what made everyone the most uncomfortable wasn't calling Bush on the carpet. With a 32% approval rating, that shouldn't surprise anyone. What made viewers and the audience uncomfortable was lampooning a style of news delivery which pervades our media. It was so familiar that it was frightening. Anyone could see the likeness of O'Reilly in Colbert's delivery, from the overt gushing of support for Bush to the excuses and word twisting to the criticism of the press, bravado and bullheadedness.

Colbert delivered O'Reilly's speech at the event and he did it so well that the poignancy of his message trumped the humor of his delivery.

Now that's ballsalicious!

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Nice summary, keopeli!

:thumbsup:

[jumpoffdaplanet]

2. Hit the nail on the head

!!!

[MaggieSwanson]

3. Right on, keopeli. K&R

[Inland]

4. That's why it's funny. nt

[madmark]

5. that's why its funny; it was an attack on the accepted media discourse

and its utter failure. In some ways the excortiation of Bush was merely a set up, a prop, for the main target, the whore enabling media.

[hwmnbn]

6. Right, when I first saw the Colbert Report .......

I figured how long can this shtick last. I thought it was a one-dimensional joke.

I have changed my mind. Satirizing the RW talking heads is brilliant. You can't tell the difference between the Colbert and the O'Reilly bullshit.

What Colbert does is deliver the chimp's bad news and make it sound good. Which is what O'Reilly does.