Colbert and the "Death of Pundit Apartheid"

[Tuesday_Morning]

Ran into this over at In These Times. I love Colbert in the role of the doctor.

The Blustery Screeching Death of Pundit Apartheid
Brian Zick

<snip>

The death knell is sounding, and you can hear it in all the sturm and drang about the “incivility” of bloggers, the whining of Deborah Howell and Jim Brady and John Harris at WaPo, the pathetic attempts to marginalize opinions other than those displayed on the pages or in broadcasts produced by the prominent corporate news operations. Dailykos diarist DaveV has documented a list of petulantista defiance. Dan Froomkin asks the rhetorical question, Why So Defensive?

<snip>

Stephen Colbert was not thought to be funny, by many at the White House Correspondents Dinner, because he basically functioned rather like a doctor notifying his group of patients that their time was nigh. Could be 6 months, could be 6 years. No specific forecasts. But their medical condition plainly indicated that they had better start preparing for their demise. It's understandable that they might not see reason to laugh. Colbert, though, is only one nail in the coffin the establishmentarians see being constructed for their burial.

The dollar cost per word ratio, which once upon a time was the surest indicator of superior media authority, simply doesn't matter any more. At least with respect to opinion mongering, money is no longer power. Now it's Broder and Matthews and Russert and Friedman and Cokie Roberts, et al, competing with Atrios and Kos and Digby and Billmon and Josh Marshall. In the marketplace of ideas, power accrues to those with a larger capacity for brain function. Who has the bigger audience right now? Who will have the bigger audience in the next two years, the next four years? Will Washington Week invite Bill Scher and Steve Soto and Christy Hardin Smith to sit on the panel? Will Washington Week have any relevance at all? Will the Lehrer News Hour update its fossilized Shields and Brooks editorial combat to feature the Rude Pundit versus Michelle Malkin?

However it ultimately shakes out, the vampires have seen the glow of the approaching morn. The spoiled children have recognized they'll no longer be the center of attention. The dinosaurs are stuck in the tar, agonized by the portents of evolution. The supremacists have been shaken by the conquering arrival of equality. You can see it, and hear it, happening. Not as fast as you might like, and not all at once. But it's happening. You can tell by the churlish tone of the whine.

more at link:

http://www.theittlist.com/site/ittlist/ind/the_blustery_screeching_death_of_pundit_apartheid/

[malaise]

1. Lovely read

The end is nigh for the popinjays.

[Jade Fox]

2. This is really good....

and I sure hope he's right.

I like the point he makes that bloggers are winning their audience because they have actual ideas and talk about real stuff instead of spin spin spin.

This quote is good too:

People losing authority feel dispossessed, angry at the decline - and foreseeable loss altogether - of their power. So they gripe. As loud as they can.

That could describe any formerly dominant group who are losing their dominant status.

[otohara]

3. Nice Piece

thanks for this

[Jade Fox]

4. kick

[zippy890]

5. good insights

:dem:

[Arugula Latte]

6. Just sent this piece to Dick Boy himself.

Heh heh.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

7. The Courier-Journal in Louisville has a take on last week, too.

Maybe the tide has finally turned and the journalists are no longer able to hide behind Chucklenuts' lies and expect an invite to the White House. Here is another take on this week with Chimpy.

Comedy comes to the rescue
And a Full Monty for the First Amendment

By Pam Platt

(snip)

That, in a context of emperors and no clothes, it was even a full-Monty workout of the First Amendment via sight, sound and satire.

OK. But what does all that mean?

The best I could come up with was a Buffalo Springfield line from the last time pop culture was a major player in the social and political landscape: "There's something happening here / What it is ain't exactly clear . . . " -- which was nice to remember but did little for the clarity department.

So I called Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, whom I believed could explain the significance of that trifecta, if there was any. And he did.

Headline to our discussion: What Thompson calls The Fifth Estate -- comedy -- has rushed in to fill the void left where The Fourth Estate -- the press -- has feared or failed to tread … which is on the toes or the sensibilities of the powerful. (emphasis mine)

Bottom line to that discussion: Something is happening here, Thompson said, all over the place. And pop culture is something of a windsock -- my image, not his -- catching snatches or gusts of change that also show up in poll numbers and disapproval ratings.

Platt does a fine job of tying in "United 93," Bruce Springsteen's performance in New Orleans and Steven Colbert's performance at the WHC dinner into one big ball of the people the failures of this White House and the "journalists."

Love the professor's reference to the "fifth estate" - comedy doing the MSM's job.

You can read the entire article here - http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060507/COLUMNISTS10/605070364/1054/OPINION

[Tuesday_Morning]

11. A Full Monty workout of the First Amendment

Ha! That's perfect. Thanks.

[annabanana]

8. How to protect the internet as the "Public Square"?

It is our ability to communicate with each other directly that has made the internet the big spoiler in the fascist party balls that this crowd has been planning for since their betrayal by FDR.

If we EVER get the power back, even for a brief shining moment, the access to the internet MUST be clearly included into the "Right of Assembly" in the Bill of Rights.

Without our current ability to bypass the corporate media, we would have already passed the point of no return (and we are damn close even with our eyes open).

This is a most precious resource and it deserves whatever protections we can institutionalize.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

9. K & R. Honored to be the 5th. Excellent read. nt.

[robbedvoter]

10. My observations exactly - only better writing.

That's what their whining meant. We finally have a voice and they don't like it none.

[Quetzalro]

12. Great piece!

Thanks very much.