Attytood
Friday, January 19, 2007
Look, we realize that the White House Correspondents Association
dinner is a "fun" event, and it would be nice, in theory, to free
it from the shackles of the supposed adversarial relationship
between the press corps and the president it covers.
But sometimes, life and art imitate each other just a little
too closely. When we saw earlier this week that the
WHCA had chosen Rich Little -- who we used to watch imitate
Richard Nixon and Bob Hope on Johnny Carson in the early 1970s,
if we were allowed to stay up that late -- to follow last year's
ruckus over
in-your-face funny Stephen Colbert as the main entertainer,
we were willing to let it go.
But then we read this (huge h/t to occasional reader Phoenix
Woman). The cowardice of these people -- who sat there on
mute for months while the president made plans to start a war
under false pretenses -- is astounding. Little now says he
has an understanding not to bash Bush or mention the war:
Little said organizers of the event made it clear
they don't want a repeat of last year's controversial appearance
by Stephen Colbert, whose searing satire of President Bush and
the White House press corps fell flat and apparently touched too
many nerves.
"They got a lot of letters," Little said Tuesday. "I won't
even mention the word 'Iraq.'"
Little, who hasn't been to the White House since he was
a favorite of the Reagan administration, said he'll stick with
his usual schtick -- the impersonations of the past six presidents.
"They don't want anyone knocking the president. He's really
over the coals right now, and he's worried about his legacy,"
added Little, a longtime Las Vegas resident.
OK, free speech means you also have a right NOT to say anything
or criticize anybody. But for the White House press corps to instruct
Little not to "knock" the president smacks of a kind of censorship,
from the very people that we've placed in the front line trenches
of free speech.
We won't belabor the point, because it's too obvious, but America
desperately needs a press corps that's more eager to offend the
White House, not less eager. It was funny when Basil Fawlty said
"don't mention
the war."
We're not laughing now.
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