Bush cops a comedy beating at major dinner

Democracy Now! | Stephen Colbert's Blistering Performance Mocking Bush and the Press Goes Ignored by the Media

Maybe you're already across this, but if you aren't, Daily Show performer Stephen Colbert was guest speaker at the annual White House Press Corp dinner the other week. Standing about 5 feet about from George W and in full character doing his conservative commentator bit, he proceeded to sledge Bush for the better part of 20 minutes, while the President just looked more and more annoyed.

He also had a thing or two to say to the assembled journalists in the room about how slack they'd been in keeping the government accountable, which is probably why his speech got almost no coverage in the mainstream media in the US until it had swept the web, getting more than 500,000 viewings on YouTube (a popular web video site).

It's largely been removed from the web by now (apparently due to Copyright issues) but can still be found here and there - here for now ( http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/03/145234 )

Here are a couple of excerpts to give you some idea.

Mark Smith, ladies and gentlemen of the press corps, Madame First Lady, Mr. President, my name is Stephen Colbert, and tonight it is my privilege to celebrate this president, ‘cause we're not so different, he and I. We both get it. Guys like us, we're not some brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We're not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut. Right, sir?

That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now, I know some of you are going to say, "I did look it up, and that's not true." That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works.

And as excited as I am to be here with the President, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of FOX News. FOX News gives you both sides of every story: the President's side, and the Vice President's side.

But the rest of you, what are you thinking? Reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason: they're super-depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished.