If one wanted to see evidence of the shallowness of the US news media and its incestuous relationship with politicians and the way reporters (I use the term loosely) get gooey-eyed when they meet film and TV stars, you need look no further than the annual White House Correspondents Dinner that took place last Saturday. I am amazed that the event didn’t shrivel up and die after the brutal roasting it got in 2006 from Stephen Colbert when the organizers made the mistake of inviting him to give the keynote speech and instead of the usual pandering they expected to get, he took the opportunity to tell them to their faces that they were nothing better than star-struck stenographers who suck up to the powerful and famous. Incidentally, there is a new documentary titled Nerd Prom that gives an inside look at this event, if you have the stomach for it.

But alas, the event still goes on and of course since the news media personalities love nothing better than talking about themselves, they covered it like they would the Academy Awards, gushing over celebrities and who was on the red carpet. Unfortunately for them this year, there was a riot taking place in Baltimore that very moment but even a genuinely newsworthy event taking place just 50 miles away couldn’t get them to shift the cameras from themselves.

The Daily Show documented the atrocities.

(These clips aired on April 27, 2015. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Nightly Show outside the US, please see this earlier post. If the videos autoplay, please see here for a diagnosis and possible solutions.)