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The MSM basically establish the view of reality in our country. When they followed blindly along after the Bush administration, the nation thought war in Iraq was a dandy idea. Once the press got disillusioned by war, and Katrina, and the dizzying pace of scandal, corruption, and incompetence, it finally starting talking to the public in a way that allowed them to understand how they were being driven off a cliff.
If the MSM has decided that Colbert didn't matter, then he didn't matter. For all the astute (and correct) Salon and blogosphere commentary about Colbert's courage in calling the emperor naked, the country will not realize that has happened. The country won't get to reinterpret Bush's, and the press corps', gross failings through the faux-chumminess of Colbert's persona--because the press itself has decided to promote folksy-Bush again, instead.
Sigh. The right wing has such a great message machine, with Fox News and all Republican commentators in lockstep. If this were their satirist (oxymoronic, I know), they might all point out, "Well, *I* wasn't the one who said it," but they'd manage to embrace the message. (Think Swift Boat.) When it comes from the left, the supposedly liberal media and the Democrats themselves race to kill the messenger. That's why we'll never win.
