With one speech at one dinner, Mr Colbert exposes a whole passel of haters. With J$P Video!

We all owe a debt of gratitude to satirist Stephen Colbert. He spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night, and ignited a mini-blogstorm that has pleased us to no end. Apparently the blue bloggers are in a huff, because the speech by the wildly popular Colbert (whose Colbert Report gets about a 1.1 rating) is not being covered by the media.

TVNewser uncritically printed a comment from one of his famous anonymous emailers, who asserted:

I was in shock, just frozen to the floor--it was astonishing--yet the only MSM coverage is of the president's goofy nightclub routine with a buddy impersonator.

According to comments at The Huffington Post:

Fox News has decided to pretty much ignore the issue

Meanwhile, we read at thankyoustephencolbert.org:

I just wish someone had a closeup on that little weasel’s (and his wife’s) face in split screen to watch him squirm. It’s a good thing he was actually present as he would never have heard about or seen it on Fox “News”.

And of course, the Fox haters extraordinaire, the newshounds (another fine product of the Outfoxed cabal), are part of the same echo chamber:

there is an ongoing, concerted, deliberate media blackout of any coverage of Colbert's politically charged comedic appearance at that dinner.

As is so often the case, the people who complain loudest about Fox apparently don't watch. Here's a snippet from FNC's signature evening newscast [QuickTime video]:



Hmm. Not a very effective blackout. But it gets better. Joining the He-Man Fox-Haters Club is Think Progress, with a screaming headline:

Fox News Slams Colbert: ‘Inappropriate,’ ‘Over the Line,’ ‘Not Very Funny’

In true propagandist fashion, anything anyone says on FNC automatically becomes the corporate position of "Fox News". In this case, Steve Doocy on Fox & Friends made a few comments about the evening's entertainment:

DOOCY: Personally I felt like he went over the line. Today in Lloyd Grove’s column, he says that Colbert “bombed badly.” It was not very funny.

You wouldn't think an offhand comment during the morning banter amounted to proclaiming the official position of Fox News, but it was good enough for Think Progress. And naturally, the newspooches ran with the pack :

Steve Doocy Fires First Salvo at Colbert...Co-host Julie Banderas chimed in, saying "...Is it weird to sit there and roast the President of the United States? I mean, Imus with Clinton, that never worked out either."

Co-host Julie Banderas? Umm, no. She wasn't even on the program. Those expert Fox-watchers, the newshounds, don't even know Kiran Chetry when they are staring her in the face. But you have to wonder: why did the guys at Think Progress trumpet Doocy's comments, and why did the newsmutts parrot their spin, but not say one single word about this [QuickTime video]:



Yes, that's the real Julie Banderas. Her comments on Stephen Colbert don't get reported by the newshounds. There is no video clip at Think Progress. There is no headline: "Fox News Praises Colbert: He Was a Riot!". How much more fun it is to tell people what "Fox News" says about Colbert, when you can leave out whatever doesn't fit your spin.

Thanks to Mr Colbert's DC appearance, we have re-established several key points:

• The people who complain loudest about Fox News have no idea what they're talking about because they don't watch it.
• When they do watch it, they pick and choose what to complain about, and conceal that which disproves their spin.
• Fox News Channel has room for viewpoints that are the polar opposites of each other. Doocy and Banderas prove that "fair and balanced" is not just a slogan.

So we thank you Stephen Colbert, for exposing once again the ignorance and dishonesty of the Fox haters.