Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

On April 29, 2006, American comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...

appeared as the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association

White House Correspondents' Association

The White House Correspondents' Association is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the President of the United States. The WHCA was founded in 1914 by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor that a Congressional committee would select which journalists could attend...

Dinner, which was held in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, at the Hilton Washington

Hilton Washington

The Hilton Washington is a hotel in Washington, D.C. It is located at 1919 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., roughly at the boundaries of the Kalorama, Dupont Circle, and Adams Morgan neighborhoods.Developed by Uris Brothers and built in 1965 in a double-arched design, the hotel long sported the largest...

hotel. Colbert's performance consisted of a 16-minute podium speech and a 7-minute video presentation, which were broadcast live across the United States on the cable television networks C-SPAN

C-SPAN

C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...

and MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

. Standing a few feet from U.S. President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

, in front of an audience of celebrities, politicians, and members of the White House Press Corps

White House Press Corps

The White House Press Corps is the group of journalists or correspondents usually stationed at the White House in Washington, D.C. to cover the president of the United States, White House events and news briefings. Their offices are located in the West Wing....

, Colbert delivered a controversial, searing routine targeting the president and the media. Colbert spoke in the persona of the character

Stephen Colbert (character)

The Reverend / Sir / Dr. / Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A., brain-child of Google, is the persona of political satirist Stephen Colbert, as portrayed on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Described as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot", the character is a self-obsessed right-wing...

he plays on Comedy Central

Comedy Central

Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

's The Colbert Report, a parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

of a conservative pundit

Pundit (politics)

A pundit is someone who offers to mass media his or her opinion or commentary on a particular subject area on which they are knowledgeable. The term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities...

in the fashion of Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly (commentator)

William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...

and Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...

.

Colbert's performance quickly became an Internet and media sensation. Commentators have debated the stand-alone humor content of Colbert's performance, the political nature of his remarks, and whether there was an intentional cover-up by the media in the reporting on the routine. Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

's James Poniewozik

James Poniewozik

James Poniewozik is an American journalist and television critic. He writes Times Tuned In column and has a blog with the same name.Originally from Monroe, MI, Poniewozik attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, graduating with a BA in English. He subsequently attended the graduate program...

noted that "days after Stephen Colbert performed at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, this has become the political-cultural touchstone issue of 2006—like whether you drive a hybrid

Hybrid vehicle

A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles , which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors.-Power:...

or use the term 'freedom fries

Freedom fries

Freedom fries is a political euphemism for French fries used by some people in the United States as a result of anti-French sentiment during the controversy over the U.S. decision to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq. France expressed strong opposition in the United Nations to such an invasion...

'". Six months later, New York Times columnist Frank Rich

Frank Rich

Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...

called Colbert's after-dinner speech a "cultural primary" and christened it the "defining moment" of the United States' 2006 midterm elections

United States general elections, 2006

The 2006 United States midterm elections were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. All United States House of Representatives seats and one third of the United States Senate seats were contested in this election, as well as 36 state governorships, many state legislatures, four territorial...

. Three and a half years after the speech, Frank Rich referenced it again, calling it "brilliant" and "good for the country", while columnist Dan Savage

Dan Savage

Daniel Keenan "Dan" Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in...

referred to it as "one of the things that kept people like me sane during the darkest days of the Bush years".

Colbert still occasionally references this performance on The Colbert Report, and included the speech in the appendix of his book .

Performance at the dinner

Colbert was invited to speak at the dinner by Mark Smith, outgoing president of the White House Press Corps Association. According to a report in New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

magazine, "Smith later told the Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

he hadn't seen much of Colbert's work".

Colbert gave his after-dinner remarks in front of an audience described by the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

as a "Who's Who of power and celebrity". More than 2,500 guests attended the event, including First Lady

First Lady of the United States

First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...

Laura Bush

Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...

, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...

Peter Pace

Peter Pace is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first Marine appointed to the United States' highest-ranking military office. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Pace succeeded U.S. Air Force General Richard Myers on...

, U.S. Attorney General

United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...

Alberto Gonzales

Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...

, China's Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong

Zhou Wenzhong

Zhou Wenzhong is a Chinese diplomat and fomer ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States of America from March 2005 to 2010.-Biography:...

, AOL

AOL

AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

co-founder Steve Case

Steve Case

Stephen McConnell "Steve" Case is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online . Since his retirement as chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003, he has gone on to build a variety of new businesses through his investment...

, model and tennis player Anna Kournikova

Anna Kournikova

Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova is a Russian retired professional tennis player. Her beauty and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide, despite the fact that she never won a WTA singles title. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name...

, and actor George Clooney

George Clooney

George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...

. For his performance, Colbert adopted the role of the character

Stephen Colbert (character)

that he plays on his television show, The Colbert Report. He spoke directly to President Bush several times, satirically

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

praising his foreign policy, lifestyle, and beliefs, and referring to his declining approval rating

Approval rating

In the United States, presidential job approval ratings were introduced by George Gallup in the late 1930s to gauge public support for the President of the United States during his term. An approval rating is a percentage determined by a polling which indicates the percentage of respondents to an...

and popular reputation.

Many of Colbert's jokes were directed at President Bush, but he also lampooned the journalists and other figures present at the dinner. Although most of the speech was prepared specifically for the event, several segments were lifted, largely unchanged, from The Colbert Report, particularly from the opening "truthiness

Truthiness

Truthiness is a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or that it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts....

" monologue on the first episode of the show, where Colbert advocated speaking from "the gut" rather than the brain and denounced books as "all fact, no heart". Colbert framed this part of the speech as though he were agreeing with Bush's own philosophies, saying that he and Bush are "not brainiacs on the nerd patrol", thus implicitly criticizing the way Bush positions himself as an anti-intellectual

Anti-intellectualism

Anti-intellectualism is hostility towards and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectual pursuits, usually expressed as the derision of education, philosophy, literature, art, and science, as impractical and contemptible...

.

Following this introduction to his style and general philosophy, Colbert listed a series of absurd "beliefs that I live by", such as "I believe in America. I believe it exists." He also alluded to outsourcing

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

to China, and satirized the traditional Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

opposition to "big government

Big government

Big government is a term generally used by political conservatives, laissez-faire advocates, or libertarians to describe a government or public sector which they consider to be excessively large, corrupt and inefficient, or inappropriately involved in certain areas of public policy or the private...

" by referencing the Iraq War, saying, "I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

Colbert then segued into a segment poking fun at Bush's sinking approval rating

Approval rating

Colbert continued his mock defense of Bush by satirizing Bush's photo op

Photo op

A photo op , short for photograph opportunity , is an opportunity to take a memorable and effective photograph of a politician, a celebrity, or a notable event...

s aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)

USS Abraham Lincoln , is the fifth Nimitz-class supercarrier in the United States Navy. She is the second Navy ship named after former president Abraham Lincoln. Her home port is Everett, Washington.-Construction:...

, at the site of the collapsed World Trade Center, and in cities devastated by Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

:
Colbert then wrapped up the portion of his monologue specifically directed at Bush by parodying his energy policy

Energy policy of the United States

The energy policy of the United States is determined by federal, state and local public entities in the United States, which address issues of energy production, distribution, and consumption, such as building codes and gas mileage standards...

, using Laura Bush's reading initiative as a springboard to mock-criticize books for being "elitist", and complimenting Bush for being "steady": "Events can change; this man's beliefs never will. He believes the same thing Wednesday as he did Monday. No matter what happened Tuesday."

Next, Colbert took time to harshly criticize the White House Press Corps

White House Press Corps

, who hosted the event, and the media

Media bias in the United States

Media bias in the United States occurs when the media in the United States systematically presents a particular point of view. Claims of media bias in the United States include claims of liberal bias, conservative bias, mainstream bias, and corporate bias...

in general. Addressing the audience, he remarked:
For the remainder of his speech, Colbert joked about a number of people in the audience, including Peter Pace, Antonin Scalia

Antonin Scalia

Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...

, John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

, and Joe Wilson

Joseph C. Wilson

Joseph Charles Wilson IV is a former United States diplomat best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his New York Times op-ed piece, "What I Didn't Find in Africa"; and the subsequent "outing" of his wife...

. During this section, he made another reference to global warming while talking about interviewing Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

: "You can ask him anything, but he's going to say what he wants, at the pace that he wants. It's like boxing a glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

. Enjoy that metaphor, by the way, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is."

Colbert received a chilly reception from the audience. His jokes were often met with silence and muttering, apart from the enthusiastic laughter of a few in the audience, such as Antonin Scalia

Antonin Scalia

's hearty laughter as Colbert teased him. This was in stark contrast to the warm reception that Bush received at the event for his skit with impersonator

Look-alike

A look-alike is a person who closely resembles another person. In popular Western culture, a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity, politician or member of royalty. Many look-alikes earn a living by making guest appearances at public events or performing on...

Steve Bridges

Steve Bridges is an American comedian, impressionist, and actor who has "developed a repertoire of over 200 impressions, including TV characters Barney Fife and Homer Simpson, broadcasters Tom Brokaw, Paul Harvey and Rush Limbaugh; his impressions of political leaders Bill Clinton, George W...

, which immediately preceded Colbert's monologue.

At the end of his monologue, Colbert introduced what he characterized as an audition video to become the new White House Press Secretary

White House Press Secretary

The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....

(Scott McClellan

Scott McClellan

Scott McClellan is a former White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, and author of a controversial No. 1 New York Times bestseller about the Bush Administration titled What Happened. He replaced Ari Fleischer as press secretary in July 2003 and served until May 10, 2006...

having recently left the position). The video spliced clips of difficult questions from the White House press corps with responses from Colbert as Press Secretary. Colbert's podium included controls marked "eject", "Gannon" (a reference to erstwhile White House reporter Jeff Gannon

Jeff Gannon

James Dale Guckert is a conservative columnist better known by the pseudonym Jeff Gannon. Between 2003 and 2005, he was given credentials as a White House reporter. He was eventually employed by the conservative website Talon News during the latter part of this period...

, who once asked Bush a question that some in the press corps considered "so friendly it might have been planted"), and "volume", which he used to silence a critical question by David Gregory

David Gregory (journalist)

David Michael Gregory is an American television journalist, and moderator of NBC News' Sunday morning talk show Meet the Press.-Early life:...

.

The video continued with Colbert fleeing the briefing room and the White House, only to be pursued by Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas is an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager...

, who has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration. The footage of Thomas' pursuit of Colbert is not spliced, as Thomas had agreed to participate in the video. At one point, Colbert picks up an emergency phone and explains that Thomas "won't stop asking why we invaded Iraq". The dispatcher responds with, "Hey, why did we invade Iraq?" The entire second half of the video is a spoof of horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

cliché

Cliché

A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...

s, particularly the film Westworld
Westworld
Westworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.Westworld was the...

, with melodramatic music accompanying Thomas's slow, unwavering pursuit of Colbert, and Colbert loudly screaming "No!" at various intervals. Heavily distributed online, a portion of the mock audition tape later aired on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central

Comedy Central

Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

on May 2, 2006.

Although President Bush shook Colbert's hand after his presentation, several of Bush's aides and supporters walked out during Colbert's speech, and one former aide commented that the President had "that look that he's ready to blow".

Early press coverage

Cable channel C-SPAN broadcast the White House Correspondents Dinner live on Saturday, April 29, 2006, and rebroadcast the event several times in the next 24 hours. C-SPAN also aired a segment that included the guests arriving, followed by Bush's skit, that excluded Colbert. The trade journal Editor and Publisher was the first news outlet to report in detail on Colbert's performance, which it called a "blistering comedy 'tribute that "left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close" and "quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting — or too much speaking 'truthiness

Truthiness

Truthiness is a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or that it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts....

' to power".

On the May 1, 2006 episode of The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...

, on which Colbert was previously a correspondent, host Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

called Colbert's performance "balls-alicious" and stated, "We've never been prouder of our Mr. Colbert, and, ah—holy shit!'"

The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

both covered the dinner, but neither contained coverage of Colbert's comic tribute. The wire services Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

and the Associated Press

Associated Press

both set aside three paragraphs to cover Colbert's routine in their articles on the event, and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

mentioned Colbert several times throughout its article. The most extensive print coverage came from USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, which dedicated more space to Colbert's performance than to President Bush's skit. Videos on the Web sites of CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

and Fox News had clips of the Presidential comic routine, but no footage of Colbert's satirical performance. On their morning shows, the Monday after the event, the three major networks and CNN's American Morning played clips of Bush's routine, but did not include footage from Colbert's portion of the event. The day after the dinner, Howard Kurtz

Howard Kurtz

Howard "Howie" Alan Kurtz is an American journalist and author with a special focus on the media. He is host of CNN's Reliable Sources program, and Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast. He is the former media writer for The Washington Post. He has written five books about the media...

played clips of Colbert's performance on his CNN show Reliable Sources. On the Fox News show Fox & Friends
Fox & Friends
Fox & Friends is an American morning television show on the Fox News Channel.-History:The show begins at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time with the latest Fox News Live headlines and analyzes the news of the morning...

, the hosts mentioned Colbert's performance, criticizing him for going "over the line". Tucker Carlson

Tucker Carlson

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...

, a frequent target of The Colbert Report before and after the event, further criticized Colbert as being "unfunny" on his MSNBC show Tucker
Tucker (television program)
Tucker is an American television program on MSNBC that focused on politics, hosted by Tucker Carlson. The show aired from June 6, 2005–March 14, 2008....

.

Much of the initial coverage contrasted the audience's reaction to President Bush and actor Steve Bridges' comedy routine with Colbert's remarks. While Bush and Bridges received very positive reaction from the audience, Colbert received a far more muted response. "The president killed. He's a tough act to follow—at all times," said Colbert. On his show, Colbert joked that the unenthusiastic reception was actually "very respectful silence" and added that the crowd "practically carried me out on their shoulders" even though he was not ready to leave.

Lloyd Grove

Lloyd Grove

Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast, the Web site run by Tina Brown and backed by Barry Diller. He is also a frequent contributor to New York Magazine...

, gossip columnist for the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

, said that Colbert "bombed badly", and BET

Black Entertainment Television

Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...

founder Bob Johnson

Robert L. Johnson

Robert L. Johnson is an American business magnate best known for being the founder of television network Black Entertainment Television , and is also its former chairman and chief executive officer...

remarked, "It was an insider crowd, as insider a crowd as you'll ever have, and [Colbert] didn't do the insider jokes". Congressional Quarterly
Congressional Quarterly
Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is a privately owned publishing company that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress...

columnist and CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

commentator Craig Crawford

Craig Crawford

Craig Crawford is a writer and television political commentator based in Washington, D.C., a columnist for Congressional Quarterly, and the author of Listen Up Mr...

found Colbert's performance hilarious, but observed that "only a handful of folks at the tables around me were visibly amused". Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik thought that Colbert's critics missed the point: "Colbert wasn't playing to the room, I suspect, but to the wide audience of people who would later watch on the Internet. If anything, he was playing against the room." Poniewozik called the pained, uncomfortable reaction of the audience to Colbert's jokes "the money shots. They were the whole point."

Internet popularity

Even though Colbert's performance "landed with a thud" among the live audience, a clip of Colbert at the dinner became an overnight sensation, turning into a viral video

Viral video

A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...

that spread across numerous Web sites in various forms, with the sites that offered the video seeing massive increases in their traffic.

According to CNET

CNET

CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

's News.com site, Colbert's speech became "one of the Internet's hottest acts", and searches for Colbert on Yahoo!

Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...

were up 5,625 percent. During the days after the speech, Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

saw twice as many searches for "C-SPAN

C-SPAN

" (the television network that broadcast the event) as for "Jennifer Aniston"—an uncommon occurrence—as well as a surge in Colbert-related searches. The blog Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars is an American liberal blog founded by John Amato. Along with John Amato, frequent contributors include Nicole Belle, Logan Murphy, Mike Finnigan, David Neiwert, SilentPatriot, , Susie Madrak, Nonny Mouse, Kenneth Quinnell, and Howie Klein. Journalist Tina Dupuy is the managing...

, one of the first places to host the video, not only recorded their busiest day on record, but Nielsen BuzzMetrics

Nielsen Media Research

Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...

ranked their post of the video clip as the second most popular blog post for all of 2006. Clips of Colbert's comic tribute climbed to the #1, #2, and #3 spots atop YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

's "Most Viewed" video list. Before YouTube took down the video under pressure from C-SPAN, the various clips of Colbert's speech had been viewed 2.7 million times in less than 48 hours. In an unprecedented move for the network, C-SPAN demanded that YouTube and iFilm

IFilm

ifilm.com was an online archive of short films, movie trailers, and other video clips of interest. Ifilm.com was originally founded by independent filmmaker Raphael Raphael in 1997 as an independent film and media collective...

remove unauthorized copies of the video from their sites. Google Video

Google Video

Google Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...

subsequently purchased the exclusive rights to retransmit the video and it remained at or near the top of Google's most popular videos for the next two weeks.

Both Editor and Publisher and Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

, which published extensive and early coverage of the Colbert speech, drew record and near-record numbers of viewers to their Web sites. 70,000 articles were posted to blogs about Colbert's roast of Bush on the Thursday after the event, the most of any topic, and "Colbert" remained the top search term at Technorati

Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...

for over a week. Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

TV Critic Doug Elfman credited the Internet with promoting an event that would have otherwise been overlooked, stating that "Internet stables for liberals, like the behemoth dailykos.com

Daily Kos

Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...

, began rumbling as soon as the correspondents' dinner was reported in the mainstream press, with scant word of Colbert's combustive address".

Three weeks after the dinner, audio of Colbert's performance went on sale at the iTunes Music Store

ITunes Store

The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

and became the #1 album purchased, outselling new releases by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...

, Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...

, and Paul Simon

Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

. The CEO of Audible.com

Audible.com

Audible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....

, which provided the recording sold at iTunes, explained its success by saying, "you had to not be there to get it". It continued to be a top download at iTunes for the next five months and remains a top-selling audiobook on the service.

Allegations of a media blackout

Among some commentators, the popularity of Colbert's dinner speech was mixed with indignation at the press corps for, as they saw it, snubbing Colbert even though he was the featured entertainer for the evening. The Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin

Dan Froomkin

Dan Froomkin is the Senior Washington Correspondent for the Huffington Post. His work is now collected . He previously wrote a column for the online version of The Washington Post called White House Watch....

called it "The Colbert Blackout" and lambasted the traditional media for ignoring Colbert and instead focusing on the "much safer" routine in which President Bush was joined onstage by a Bush impersonator. Media Matters

Media Matters for America

Media Matters for America is a politically progressive media watchdog group which says it is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Set up as a 501 non-profit organization, MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and...

was especially critical of television news. They reported that ABC's This Week
This Week (ABC TV series)
This Week is ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program.The Sunday morning talk show has aired on Sunday mornings on ABC since 1981; the program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones...

, NBC's Sunday Today, the NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...

, the morning shows of the three major networks, and CNN's American Morning
American Morning
American Morning is the morning television show on CNN. It premiered in 2001.-About the show:American Morning is hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin & Soledad O'Brien. Others who appear regularly are Rob Marciano with the weather, Sunny Hostin on legal news, and CNN senior medical...

all focused on Bush's skit and "ignored Colbert entirely". Media Matters also contrasted various news outlets' failure to cover Colbert to the extensive coverage that Don Imus

Don Imus

John Donald "Don" Imus, Jr. is an American radio host, humorist, philanthropist and writer. His nationally-syndicated talk show, Imus in the Morning, is broadcast throughout the United States by Citadel Media and relayed on television by the Fox Business Network.-Personal life:Imus was born in...

drew for his controversial insults at Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

at the 1996 Radio and Television Correspondents' Association

Radio and Television Correspondents' Association

The Radio and Television Correspondents Association is an American journalism group best known for holding an annual dinner in Washington, D.C., not to be confused with the higher profile White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.-Officers:...

Dinner. Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...

professor Todd Gitlin

Todd Gitlin

Todd Gitlin is an American sociologist, political writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He has written widely on the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular and scholarly publications.-New Left activist:...

remarked, "It's too hot to handle. [Colbert] was scathing toward Bush and it was absolutely devastating. [The mainstream media doesn't] know how to handle such a pointed and aggressive criticism."

Others saw no intentional snub of Colbert by the press. Responding to a question about why The Washington Posts article about the dinner "did not convey with any specificity what Colbert had to say", Media Backtalk writer Howard Kurtz

Howard Kurtz

responded, "The problem in part is one of deadline. The presses were already rolling by the time Colbert came on at 10:30, so the story had to be largely written by then." Asked why television news favored Bush's performance over Colbert's, Elizabeth Fishman, an assistant dean at the Columbia School of Journalism

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

and a former 60 Minutes

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

producer, told MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

that the "quick hit" for television news shows would have been to use footage of Bush standing beside his impersonator. "It's an easier set up for visual effect", she noted. Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents' Association (which hosted the dinner) and political editor of C-SPAN (which broadcast the dinner), scoffed at the whole idea of the press intentionally ignoring Colbert: "Bush hit such a home run with Steve Bridges that he got all of the coverage. I think that exceeded expectations. There was no right-wing conspiracy or left-wing conspiracy." Time columnist Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox is an American author and blogger. The founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, she is currently the Washington correspondent for GQ and is The Guardian's lead blogger on US politics. She previously worked at Air America Media.-Early life:Cox was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico...

called the allegations of a deliberate media blackout
Media blackout
Media blackout refers to the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be voluntary, or may in some countries be enforced by the government or state. The latter case is controversial in peacetime, as some regard it as a human...

a "fake controversy" because Colbert's performance got coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the major wire services. Fellow commentator Kurtz concurred, noting that not only was the video carried on C-SPAN and freely available online but, also, he himself had played two clips on his own CNN show, "so apparently I didn't get the memo".

On May 3, 2006, The New York Times published an article addressing the controversy. The paper acknowledged that some had "chided the so-called mainstream media, including The New York Times, which ignored Mr. Colbert's remarks while writing about [Bush's] opening act". The New York Times then quoted several passages of Colbert's more substantial criticism of the president and covered various reactions to the event. On May 15, The New York Times Public Editor, Byron Calame

Byron Calame

Byron Calame was the second public editor of the New York Times. He succeeded Daniel Okrent in this ombudsman-like position in 2005, and was followed by Clark Hoyt...

, wrote on his blog that more than two hundred readers had written to complain about the exclusion of any mention of Colbert from the initial, lengthy article covering the dinner. Calame quoted The New York Times' deputy bureau chief in Washington, who said that a mention of Colbert in the first article could not have been long enough to do his routine justice, but also that the paper should have printed a distinct in-depth article on Colbert at the same time, rather than days after the fact.

Praise and criticism for Colbert

Colbert's performance found a wide variation of positive and negative reactions from the media. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

News Online columnist Heather Mallick

Heather Mallick

Heather Mallick is a controversial Toronto-based columnist, author and lecturer. She writes a twice weekly column for the Toronto Star, an occasional column for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website, and a monthly column for The Guardian's website...

wrote, "Colbert had the wit and raw courage to do to Bush what Mark Antony

Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

did to Brutus

Marcus Junius Brutus

Marcus Junius Brutus , often referred to as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic. After being adopted by his uncle he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, but eventually returned to using his original name...

, murderer of Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

. As the American media has self-destructed, it takes Colbert to damn Bush with devastatingly ironic praise." Comedian and now-US senator Al Franken

Al Franken

Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....

(DFL - Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

), who performed at the dinner twice during the Bill Clinton administration

Presidency of Bill Clinton

The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton Administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term...

, "... thought that what Stephen did was very admirable". In its year-end issue, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

magazine described Colbert's performance as one of the most "brilliant" moments of 2006.

In DC the response from the politicians and those who cover them, both groups targets of Colbert's satire, the reaction was negative. The Washington press corps felt that Colbert had bombed. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen found that Colbert's jokes were "lame and insulting" and wrote that Colbert was "rude" and a "bully". Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

Whip

Party whips of the United States House of Representatives

A whip in the United States House of Representatives manages his party's legislative program on the House floor. The Whip keeps track of all legislation and ensures that all party members are present when important measures are to be voted upon....

Steny Hoyer

Steny Hamilton Hoyer is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1981. The district includes a large swath of rural and suburban territory southeast of Washington, D.C.. He is a member of the Democratic Party....

felt that Colbert "crossed the line". Hoyer told the newspaper The Hill
The Hill (newspaper)
The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....

, "[Bush] is the President of the United States, and he deserves some respect". Conservative pundit Mary Matalin

Mary Matalin

Mary Joe Matalin is an American political consultant, well known for her work with the Republican Party. She was an assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney until 2003. Matalin has been chief editor of Threshold Editions, a conservative publishing imprint...

called Colbert's performance a "predictable, Bush-bashing kind of humor". Ana Marie Cox

Ana Marie Cox

Ana Marie Cox is an American author and blogger. The founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, she is currently the Washington correspondent for GQ and is The Guardian's lead blogger on US politics. She previously worked at Air America Media.-Early life:Cox was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico...

chastised those who praised Colbert as a hero: "I somehow doubt that Bush has never heard these criticisms before". She added, "Comedy can have a political point but it is not political action".

On his television program

The Daily Show

The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...

, Jon Stewart remarked, tongue in cheek, "apparently [Colbert] was under the impression that they'd hired him to do what he does every night on television". Attorney and columnist Julie Hilden

Julie Hilden

Julie Cope Hilden is a novelist and lawyer. She grew up in Hawaii and New Jersey and now lives in Los Angeles. She attended Harvard College, Yale Law School, and has an M.F.A. from Cornell University....

concluded that Colbert's "vituperative parody" might have been unfair under different circumstances, but that Bush's record of controlling potential criticism created a heightened justification for others to criticize him when they could get the chance.

Media Matters

Media Matters for America

and Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher is a monthly magazine covering the North American newspaper industry. It is based in New York City. E&P calls itself "America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry" and describes itself on its website as "the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North...

came to Colbert's defense, calling his critics hypocrites. They contrasted the critical reaction to Colbert to the praise that many in the press had for a controversial routine that Bush performed at a similar media dinner in 2004, where Bush was shown looking for WMDs in the Oval Office

Oval Office

The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...

and joking, "Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere!" and "Nope, no weapons over there!"

The New York Times published five letters to the editor on Colbert's performance in its May 3 and May 4 editions—all of which were strongly supportive of Colbert, and some of which were critical of The New York Times for reporting only critical reactions.

Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...

reported that Colbert told her he had "strenuously avoided reading anything about his appearance", and personally remained unaware of public reactions to it. Colbert's wife, Evelyn, said she was considering tracking down and saving references from publications and blogs so that Colbert could read something about the public reaction if he chose to at a later time.

On June 13, 2007 he was presented with a Spike TV Guys' Choice Award for "Gutsiest Move". He accepted the award over video conference.

External links

General

Media Matters article alleging a media blackout

Audio & video

Colbert's speech, hosted by Google Videos
The entire dinner, hosted by C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...

(Stephen Colbert introduction begins at 49:49)

Text

Transcript of the speech

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