Ahmadinejad & Colbert

The letter from Iranian President Ahmadinejad to George Bush was covered in the media, unlike Stephen Colbert's equally scathing criticism, which was almost entirely ignored by the media. But they do have one thing in common--the media completely ignores their criticism of the media. If you look at the coverage of the Ahmadinejad letter in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, or in USA Today (not to mention various cable channels on which I've seen coverage), here's the one quote you won't find mentioned at all--the one I led with yesterday:

"In media charters, correct dissemination of information and honest reporting of a story are established tenets. I express my deep regret about the disregard shown by certain Western media for these principles."

Incidentally, while doing the research for this post, I was unfortunate enough to get my eyes and brain cells dirty reading the article in USA Today. Since I had to suffer for my art, I'll spread the pain around by just giving you a few of the phrases that appear in the article: "Part anti-U.S. diatribe and part religious screed...a naive leader whose beliefs stem from resentment and ignorance of the Western world...cheeky and presumptuous...lack of understanding of the West...feelings of resentment." My favorite sentence is this one: "Ahmadinejad criticizes the United States for alleged transgressions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Latin America and the Middle East." Yeah, "alleged." Man, that Ahmadinejad has a vivid imagination, doesn't he? I mean, who on earth thinks that the U.S. has committed transgressions at Guantanamo, and in Latin America and the Middle East? I mean, other than 99% of the world's population?