Colbert and Russert

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Presidential candidate Stephen Colbert was on Meet the Press today and Crooks and Liars has the video here.

I'm generally not as critical of Russert as many others are, but he behaved like a typical Beltway tool throughout the interview, hardly a surprise and rather predictable, given how simultaneously self-important and clueless Washington insiders tend to be, not to mention how unable they seem to be to grasp the kind of complex, high-minded satire at which Colbert excels. They may be able to laugh at themselves, but only when the joke is made by one of their own, or when the intention is merely to poke fun, when there is no apparent threat, when they get it, when they're in on it, when the joke somehow makes them look good, giving them a rare opportunity to be wallow in false humility.

But Colbert is a threat, a serious one, and, even if the Beltway insiders who frequent Meet the Press and bipartisan Georgetown cocktail parties don't quite get him, they know it. Why is he such a threat? Because his intention is to expose Washington, and politics generally, for what it is, including the media establishment of which Russert is such a prominent member. He shows us, night after night, what a joke it is, and the joke is not just on conservatives like the "Stephen Colbert" character but on those in the media who take it all, and themselves, so seriously.