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May 10, 2006

Who Cares If Colbert Spoke Truth to Power?

Somewhere along the way, the Great Debate over Stephen Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (Google Video) has morphed into an argument about a vague cliché. No longer is it a question of whether Colbert's mockery of the president was funny or lame, cowardly or brave, wrong or right, but rather whether the man "spoke truth to power."

The phrase seems to have originated with the Quakers in the eighteenth century with the word "truth" meaning, in essence, pacifism. All well and good, but not particularly relevant to Colbert's performance. And even if we consider the phrase's contemporary meaning—something like, "telling the Man how it is"—we're still left with a mushy expression that tells us little about motivations or reactions. Colbert's speech was impressive because he kept pouring on the political satire long after the audience stopped laughing. Instead of talking about the nature and efficacy of this type of humor, though, some columnists and bloggers have instead waged a war of words over whether Colbert was speaking truth to power.

The Washington Post's Richard Cohen led the charge in a column trashing Colbert's speech: "His defenders—and they are all over the blogosphere—will tell you he spoke truth to power. This is a tired phrase, as we all know, but when it was fresh and meaningful it suggested repercussions, consequences—maybe even death in some countries. When you spoke truth to power you took the distinct chance that power would smite you, toss you into a dungeon or—if you're at work—take away your office."

(Whatever credibility Cohen's argument may have had was lost after the Post published his follow-up column about receiving lots of angry emails, "Digital Lynch Mob." As Wonkette puts it, "Will you please send Richard Cohen a very polite and friendly email that says something along the lines of: TOO MUCH EMAIL DOES NOT EQUAL DIGITAL FUCKING 'LYNCH MOB' YOU INSENSITIVE, UNFUNNY JACKASS.")

In a dissenting piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, Neva Chonin writes, "[Colbert] simply did what every half-wit newsperson is supposed to do. He spoke truth to power, in the name of the people, for the people, and he wouldn't be brushed off. This, during an annual exercise in journalistic narcissism and sycophancy."

According to the New York Times, after the speech was removed from YouTube, "there were rumblings on left-wing sites that someone was trying to silence a man who dared to speak truth to power."

Several blogs got into the act, as well. In Howard Kurtz's roundup of the Colbert flame wars, he quotes Rick Moran over at the Right Wing Nuthouse, who also focuses on the phrase:

The left, of course, is in rapture over Colbert's "speaking truth to power." I always have to scratch my head in wonderment over this little prevarication by the liberals. Does anyone seriously believe that the "power" to shape debate, set the national agenda, color the personalities, and make or break the politicians resides with conservatives?

Meanwhile, in the Buffalo News, Jeff Simons uses the phrase to assert that comedians are the new journalists. "When it comes to speaking truth to power," he writes, "journalists are now widely seen to be hamstrung by corporate values and their own orthodoxies in ways that comics just aren't."

And for good measure, here's AlterNet's Don Hayes:

First, he spoke truth to power right to the face of the President, in front of the entire news media. No one could miss, sidestep or deny it.

And on the right, radio host Mark Simone while appearing on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight (via Media Matters)

Well, first of all, that arrogant phrase that people use, "truth to power," it's your idea of truth, not necessarily the real truth.

Of course, since Colbert famously coined the word "truthiness" (there's a particularly exhaustive look at the phenomenon in Wikipedia), several (thousand) journalists and bloggers have come up with the phrase "truthiness to power." It's clever. And in this context, it probably carries about the same value as the phrase it's parodying.







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- Media
- posted on May 10, 06
keith h.

great post. colbert's speech wasn't that funny or shocking, but as you note, i do respect him greatly for forging ahead despite eating it at the mic (though the totally lame house earns much blame for that). and big ups to helen thomas, even though the video sucked, too.

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