* Once again the White House Correspondents Dinner delivered as expected. Red-carpet treatment for the vacuous and self-important–check. A largely off-putting performance by a professional comedian with a ton of material, in this case Comedy Central’s Larry Wilmore–check. A spot-on performance by President Barack Obama: check.
Obama is really good at this. He’s a tough act to follow.
Wilmore was not so good at this and was a tough act to watch. His diminishing-returns, Ted Cruz/Zodiac Killer analogy ran on forever. He got more cheap shots in on Wolf Blitzer than laugh lines at the expense of Donald Trump. When winces outnumber laughs, it’s never a good sign.
He wrapped it up with his version of an historic shout-out to the first African-American president. “Yo, Barry,” he said while pounding his chest, “you did it, my nigga.”
* Interesting contrast in how the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Tribune played news of the Department of Justice report on the high number of tickets issued to black bicyclists in Tampa.
“Bike Tickets Fail, Feds Say” was the front-page, above-the-fold Times headline. “No Bias Found In Police Bike Citation Program” was the front-page, below-the-fold Trib head. A same-day Times editorial was titled “Report Confirms Ticket Disparities.” The Trib‘s lead editorial counterpart: “Modest Findings on Bike Arrests.”
In short, we know which paper broke the news of “biking while black” in Tampa, and which found some mitigating reasons for the crime-targeting profiling.