The Stephen Colbert Moment

by Devanshu Mehta

Does anyone else remember the Jon Stewart moment? The single point that can be traced down to the hour when Jon Stewart suddenly took America’s entire cable news oligarchy to task on CNN Crossfire. It was the moment that Jon Stewart became relevant- and in that time, in the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election, probably became the most relevant of all. “These were the few minutes on cable television that caused Crossfire to be cancelled, Tucker Carlson to leave the channel and become the Jon Stewart moment”:http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2652831?htv=12.

Well, last Sunday, Daily Show regular Stephen Colbert who lampoons O’Reilly style punditry every night on the Colbert Report had “his moment”:http://www.radioopensource.org/stephen-colbert-court-jester/. He hosted the White House Press corps dinner and with biting satire tore apart the press, the political status quo and _the president_ who was sitting _a few feet away from him_. I don’t think anyone has done this ever before this close to the president with such drive, focus and _humor_.

“FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE COLBERT MOMENT”:http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002461887

UPDATE: “Video of the event from C-Span”:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4973617448770513925 on Google Video.