Stephen Colbert

[MrColossal]

Also, I think these things were televised before [I don't know when they started] and that is also getting this a lot of attention. Apparently Imus [some radio guy, I guess] laid into Clinton a few years ago too.

Oh well, as long as it kept Bush away from the whitehouse where he can do damage.

[DGMacphee]

Satire works when "attacked" person laughs along with the crowd and gives a nice warm forgiving smile.

No way. Satire is independent of the target's reactions and works regardless of such reactions. Case in point, the numerous targets that South Park has "attacked".

[ildu]

Wasn't the whole event supposed to be a roast on the press corps, the president and the two press secretaries? So personal attacks are supposed to be in there. I'm just wondering why Colbert, and especially the video sketch he did, didn't get a bigger reaction from the crowd.

Roasting is a very western thing to do and it's most prominent in the media in the US. In Finland no one makes fun or attacks people in the media, and I imagine it's the same with all Scandinavian and Slavic, as well as many of the central european nations. If attacks are made, they're very subtle and political, and they're carried out very gently and respectfully. Still, personal attacks are a big no-no here. I think it's a good and a bad thing both here and in the US.

[evenwolf]

darth,

last I heard, the distinction of Bush's approval ratings was that he has the lowest of any re-elected president during the first year of his second term.

And its going to be a long ass haul during the next three quarters.  Basically to get his ratings up, he must save a baby from a burning skyscraper during a hurricane.

[Las Naranjas]

Nixon had 15% approval in 1973 [after getting 60% of the vote in '72]. I don't think Bush has dived that low yet.

[Barbarian]

Hey guys, found a video clip of Leno with that "Dubya Bush" impersonator guy doing a spoof interview. Kinda funny, but, nowhere as ballsy or as biting as Colbert. Still, worth a look: http://www.wimp.com/lenobush/

[DGMacphee]

Roasting is a very western thing to do and it's most prominent in the media in the US. In Finland no one makes fun or attacks people in the media, and I imagine it's the same with all Scandinavian and Slavic, as well as many of the central european nations.

I don't know you could say roasting is so promient in the US or that no one attacks the European media. For example, after the Danish cartoon controversy, a lot of embassies got roasted.

[Andail]

For one thing, in most other western nations people and media can openly criticise the government without being called unpatriotic.
I think in the states you see more of the two extremes; both the sharpest satire and the most hushing-up.

[evenwolf]

The biggest part of this Colbert thing is that this dinner thing is a tradition, right?

the president would rather not deal with the press, unless they had intentions to boost his image.  He spends the majority of the time ignoring them and giving them ambiguous replies.

Critics like Colbert have always been around, theyve simply not been as funny .. or at least got this kind of air play.

[Anarcho]

I think a lot of people in the US would consider you unpatriotic for criticizing the government.   Just watch five minutes of Fox News and see!   We just don't get sent to jail for it...well, unless you criticize the government without a permit.  In public.  That can often lead to tear gas AND jail.  And techincally, since we're at war, I'm pretty sure the Sedition Act is still valid...so criticizing the government is illegal:

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/usspy.html

But hey, at least we're not China!  We don't jail bloggers!

[EDIT] Oh wait, evidently the Sedition Act of 1918 was REPEALED!  Whew!  That was a close one...

[Haddas]

I still don't see why americans brag about freedom. There are other places with more freedom.

[big brother]

The moon, up your mother's ass (Mr. Show), some parts of the Sahara and Gobi deserts...

[Bartimaeus]

Guam?

[lo_res_man]

Canada!
Were we throw pies in  two our leaders face, one TWICE (Jean Chretien, Paul Martin
Were a former prime minister got Egged while walking down the street. ( Pierre Trudeau)
Were the national sport is criticising the government.
Were we have one of the worlds highest comedians per capita
Sorry, but for the most part, I love my country.

[TerranRich]

Canadian money. 'Nuff said.

[lo_res_man]

So we got monopoly money, so what? the colour of your money doesn't make you FREE.

[InCreator]

In Finland no one makes fun or attacks people in the media, and I imagine it's the same with all Scandinavian and Slavic, as well as many of the central european nations.

Indeed. If any joker could walk up to our President and make a clown out of him, nobody would respect him anymore.
He's our elected image (not leader) and only one who should be treated with respect. After all, Parliament decides stuff, not him.
If I'd post a message on Internet saying that he's a moron, I should expect KAPO (our Defence Police, read "FBI" or "KGB") knocking at my door 30 minutes later. Recently, defence minister accepted a law which allows to punish people commenting in Internet... Of course, it just means serious money fine, not a dark cell for a lifetime.

And I don't think that's the system limiting my rights in any way or a lack of Democracy. Laughing at someone we elected to represent country and nation is laughing at the country and nation itsself.

Making fun of press and Parliament is way another thing, of course.

[bspeers]

lo-res man, lo-res man, lo-res man.

Don't you know that colour is the international sign of er... unfreedom?

Everyone wearing the same drab colours and everything looking identical, say drab green is the international symbol of a military-industrial com--I mean freedom.

Of course, you couldn't say this about the US, where everyone wears colourful costumes and dances in the street at night during one or two hollidays a year.

Of course, their flag has three colours, while ours only has two.  And white isn't a colour--so, that makes it more like 3-1.  Except one of their colours is white.  I think we can agree at least our flag isn't Lybia's.  I mean green?  That's  the colour of fascis--I mean freedom.  Hey look! Boat!

[Raggit]

And I don't think that's the system limiting my rights in any way or a lack of Democracy. Laughing at someone we elected to represent country and nation is laughing at the country and nation itsself.

In the USA we try to understand that dissenting from our elected leader is NOT dissenting from our country.Ã,  It is in no way unpatriotic to disagree and even publicly ridicule the President.

I wish more people recognized that, but it seems that more and more people will lable you a traitor, or terrorist sympathizer if you don't bow down to the will of the President.

But, as the very famous quote from Thomas Jefferson goes, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

[Tuomas]

What I have learned, the Finnish media isn't that free. Take this EU farming support (don't know the correct term yet, but the amount of money they give to support farming). Now we have a prime minister that is from the central party. And basically that means he does what the farmers tell him to do. Well, he himself went to the conference, negotiated Finland the worst agricultural funds one could, and at the same time we ended up paying support to France and England. Now there was a big rumble about how my party, SDP and the central party were arguing and they were accusing my party's leader for driving bad politics on the farmers.

Well that's all because the fact that we lost all the support money was never revealed. The current prime minister told the press that they couldn't make it public, and since 95% of the finnish media is owned by the righties they stood behind him.

It's a bit off topic, but it's an opinion... and the truth about this.
basically I find that a huge amount of people's opinions are based on what the media tells them, and the media is manipulated all the time. Yeh, I won't go deeper into it, it's pretty small scale and boring.