because Colbert dissed their war-mongering hero.
ABOUT SATURDAY NIGHT...: I'm a big Stephen Colbert fan, a huge Bush detractor, and I think the White House press corps has been out to lunch for much of the last five years. (Though, unlike many in the blogosphere, I don't think that's because White House reporters are lazy or stupid.) That should have made me the ideal audience-member for Colbert's performance at this weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD). As it happens, though, I laughed out loud maybe twice during Colbert's entire 20-odd minute routine. Colbert's problem, blogosphere conspiracy theories notwithstanding, is that he just wasn't very entertaining. Most of the funny lines had been recycled from his show; the new material was all pretty tired--including a way-too-long video presentation whose big joke was that ... Helen Thomas is old and batty. (Stop me if you've heard that one.)
Snip...
P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I should link to my earlier criticism of "The Colbert Report," which I wrote a week or two after the show went on the air. My sense at the time was that it wasn't funny enough to be worthy of Colbert, though I think it's improved quite a bit since then.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=15455 If you haven't seen it, you can watch it here:
http://blogs.citypages.com/ctg/2006/04/the_truthiness.asp