Yes, please do tell Stephen Colbert a big thanks (Lynne's post below).

It's funny how Colbert's bit at the White House Correspondents dinner was a microcosm of the entrenched media. The administration, and the press corpse, were forced to sit and listen to their misdeeds.

So how did the media respond?

Nothing.

Yesterday's papers focused on the safe routine that Bush did with an impersonator with nary a word about Colberts routine 20 minutes keynote skewering of everyone in the room. Colbert had the temerity of a ten year old naive child to point out the elephant in the living room. A whopping huge headline of a story for any White House Correspondent worth two cents, and the media sat on their hands .... just like they did at the dinner .... just like they've done over Iraq .... just like they've done over WMD .... and on and on and on.

So then, today, they finally react with a distorted view of the whole thing. Instead of some, like, reporting on the impact of the event and the meaning of Colbert's bit, they've chosen to ignore that and instead have done this:

Now the mainstream media is back with its second reaction: Colbert just wasn't funny.

Yes, it turns out Colbert has brought the White House and its press corps together at long last, creating a sense of solidarity rooted in something they have in common: Neither of them like being criticized.

Froomkin then goes on to outline the atrocities. They, as usual, totally missed the point choosing to focus on the most superficial aspects of the story.

And what was Colbert's reaction? Priceless:

"Colbert called it 'the greatest weekend of my entire life.' What some reported as a tepid reception to his patter was actually 'very respectful silence,' Colbert joked on his show last night. 'The crowd practically carried me out on their shoulders' -- albeit before he was ready to leave, he added."

It's absolutely no wonder that blogs are growing exponentially while newspaper sales continue to plummet and cable news ratings fall. The people who are looking for in-depth stories and coverage of reality rather than "truthiness" are fed up with the cocktail crowd and the cablefest of missing white women coverage.