Update:
Last night, a number of blogs posted on this story. This morning, though, the story seems to be that Little has muzzled himself. Joe Strupp in E&P reports: "WHCA Chief Says He Did Not Tell Comedian to Back Off Bush and Iraq " "I cannot be more clear that we never mentioned Iraq, we never gave him any guidelines," says Scully, who is also a senior producer at C-SPAN. "The only thing we told him is that we want to follow the policy of the Gridiron Dinner, which is 'singe, don’t burn'."
(…)
Scully, who said he had placed a call today to Little's agent, Michael Pick, planned to clarify that the dinner's organizers placed no restrictions on the comedian.
(…)
Scully has said that the choice of Little, who practices a milder former of humor than Colbert, had nothing to do with any controversy surrounding Colbert's performance last year. "Colbert had a couple of zingers toward President Bush, and a couple toward the press corps," Scully recalled. "Stephen Colbert is very sophisticated and if you've not seen his show you may not get it." With Little, he added, "you don't have to explain his humor."
Apologies to Steve Scully for my jump to erroneous suspicions. ---------
Will Bunch at Attytood reports that the White House Correspondents Association is afraid the delicate flower residing in the White House might have his widdle feewings hurt by the comedian mentioning Iraq. Little said organizers of the event made it clear they don't want a repeat of last year's controversial appearance by Stephen Colbert, whose searing satire of President Bush and the White House press corps fell flat and apparently touched too many nerves.
"They got a lot of letters," Little said Tuesday. "I won't even mention the word 'Iraq.'" John at AMERICAblog observes: So much for an impartial press. This is actually quite serious. If the White House Correspondents Association is so afraid of doing anything that criticizes the president, even in jest, then how does this affect their reporting? How can these people write fair, accurate and impartial stories about the increasing woes of this administration if they are so fearful of any speech that may upset this administration?
(…)
Poor embattled president. Gosh, someone might tell a joke about him. I mean, sure, he tortures people for a living, throw out habeas corpus, illegally spies on our phone conversations and the US mail, and oh yeah, killed 35,000 civilians in Iraq this past year alone - but having a joke told about him… now that crosses the line. The WHCA shoulda just hired Rush Limbaugh to do his Michael J. Fox impersonation.
Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents Association, was quoted in E&P two days ago: Scully contends that Colbert's appearance was a success and played no part in the choice of Little. "I think some of the criticism of Colbert was overblown," he said. "We didn't hear anything from the White House." Has Steve Scully, President of the White House Correspondents Association, exposed himself as a bald-faced liar in direct service to George Bush?
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