The White House correspondent’s dinner is a longstanding tradition in Washington. It’s sort of like a toned-down comedy roast, where members of the press gather and speakers take shots at the sitting president. Wanda Sykes took to the stage to joke about the media’s ferverent love of Barack. She lined up a number of decent gags. Then she turned vitriolic. Instead of the tame lashing for every ideology as has come to be expected from the event, Sykes unleashed a vitriolic tirade on Rush Limbaugh, ending with a reark about how she wants his kidneys to fail. It was met with laughs. Most notably by the President.
It goes without saying that a line was crossed. Typically these bits stick to elected officials and don’t go so far as expressing interest in someone’s death. But that’s what Wanda Sykes does. It’s not that shocking. What’s shocking is the obvious double standard at Barack Obama’s delight in such a joke. Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if someone joked that Michael Moore should be dead and George Bush was on camera in the corner laughing out loud about it? Keith Olbermann would be airing that footage every night, yelling things about fascism. But the press has apparently decided to downplay this one and we all know why.
Instead, it took Toby Harnden, a Telegraph editor, to call out Sykes on the hateful joke. The telegraph, if you’ll recall, is a British publication. Mr. Harnden is joining the ranks of the ever-growing responsible journalists in the UK press that actually has the gall to report on Barack Obama accurately. It seems English media has become aware of whatever spell Obama had on them earlier, and are quickly realizing he’s not the idol he’s made out to be by their American counterparts. Consequently, they’ve been the only ones doing their jobs.
It’s unlikely this story will get any coverage over here. CNN has declared Limbaugh is fair game, despite being a private citizen. But I think we all know what would happen if the tables were turned, and this were a joke about any of the left’s outspoken members.
