One win for decency

Don't mess with grizzly bears. They like to chomp on human skulls. But, once in a great while, if you bang one on the snout, he'll back off.

That's what happened yesterday after the Radio and Television Correspondents Association had invited comedian Louis Szekely, known professionally as Louis C.K., to headline its annual Washington, D.C., dinner in June. C.K. has a comedy series on FX, has won an Emmy, and has performed frequently on Saturday Night Live and David Letterman and Jay Leno's shows, etc., etc. In short, he is television comedian royalty (and I know a little about him because he and I graduated from the same high school).

Maybe C.K. has had so much success that he thinks he can get away with anything. His dozen-plus rants about Sarah Palin are so vile I cannot repeat them here even as examples: They make Rush Limbaugh's wrong comment about contraception activist Sandra Fluke, for which Limbaugh has apologized, seem mild in comparison. Surely, at least after all the hubbub about Rush, the media and political elite would say no to this dinner, wouldn't you think?

Well, one media star did. Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Thursday evening wrote on her blog, "[A] media association has hired the pig, Louis C.K., to be their headliner for the big media dinner? Really? I am not going. I refuse to go. Everyone in the media should join me in this boycott." (If you really must see what C.K. wrote about Palin, you can see several examples on Gretawire.)

Just by coincidence (but I doubt it), the comedian announced yesterday that he had decided to pass up the invitation from the big media, and probably a big paycheck as well. His agent said, "He just didn't want to do it anymore." Wow-C.K. can dish out viciousness but he can't take a rebuff. The grizzly backed off. Good for Greta!