Schwarz
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Obviously, Colbert is not the first ironic warrior to train his sights on the powerful. What the insurgent culture jammers at Adbusters did for Madison Avenue, and the Barbie Liberation Organization did for children's toys, and Seinfeld did for the sitcom, and the Onion did for the small-town newspaper, Jon Stewart discovered he could do for television news. Now Colbert, Stewart's spawn, has taken on the right-wing message machine.
In the late 1960s, the Situationists in France called such ironic mockery "détournement," a word that roughly translates to "abduction" or "embezzlement." It was considered a revolutionary act, helping to channel the frustration of the Paris student riots of 1968. They co-opted and altered famous paintings, newspapers, books and documentary films, seeking subversive ideas in the found objects of popular culture. "Plagiarism is necessary," wrote Guy Debord, the famed Situationist, referring to his strategy of mockery and semiotic inversion. "Progress demands it. Staying close to an author's phrasing, plagiarism exploits his expressions, erases false ideas, replaces them with correct ideas."
White, House, Correspondents', Dinner, Colbert, Main, Stream, Media, BlackOut
email attn public editor / public@nytimes.com / heres mine :
Dear PE,
Sad to say, but its not hard to see why your paper wouldn't cover Stephen Colbert's stunning performance at the WH correspondents' diner. His biting remarks merely held our press and president to minimum standards of truth. But it is surprising that you instead publish E. Bumiller's transparently non-news story on the patently weak routine enacted by the president and his comedic stunt double. For you to propagate the resulting disinformation suggests that you have learned nothing from the Judy Miller debacle. This is a lie by omission and you know it. Please address this matter publicly or continue to lose credibility for the MSM.
Bill Schwarz