I remember Rich Little, yes I do. From way, way back. He used to impersonate Nixon, annoying my father. He could make his jowls wobble when he did it, too. When I was a little girl, the man was cutting-edge. And this is why the comments on the White House Press Corps Dinner fascinate me.
As all the world knows, last years' dinner was a debacle because Stephen Colbert was very, very rude to the entire assembled press and to the President, offending everyone. So this year, nobody was taking any chances, I guess. Hey---as my dad used to say---you pays your money and you takes your choice. Which kind of sums up what happened here: a completely different kind of debacle.
Here's a pre-dinner note by Jim Rutenberg.
[quote begins from Jim Rutenberg, The New York Times, No Offense Intended With This Year’s Choice of Entertainer, but Still an Outcry.
In hiring an impersonator practiced in an old-school approach to comedy, meant to entertain but not offend, the White House Correspondents’ Association has, however, provoked left-leaning political activists, who see his assignment as a retreat from last year’s dinner. Then, the television satirist Stephen Colbert delivered a stinging roast of President Bush and, to a lesser extent, the White House press corps.
Mr. Little has said he would deliver no such performance this year. And his selection has become something of a symbol in the liberal blogosphere for what its members consider the proclivity of Washington reporters to give Mr. Bush and his administration a pass.
“It represents that the White House press corps is more interested in playing friendly and cozying up to the Bush administration than it is in providing the sort of oversight that a free press should provide in a democracy,” said Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the Daily Kos. “They shouldn’t be yukking it up together as if they’re pals and friends, and that’s why we’ve had so much terrible coverage.”
[quote ends; links in original
Here's a post-dinner assessment by David Carr.
[ quote begins from Carr, New York Times, Carson-Era Humor, Post-Colbert]