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| simple, creamy 'Media Hollow' donning false whiskers |
There are fascinating interviews of Mailer on youtube that I've watched over the years and he coined the term "media hollow" to describe those empty suits that present, or perform, the news on TV, or media personalities in general who seem superficially energized on camera or at podium. Every time I see the now embattled and soon to be fired Brian Williams, I am reminded how perfectly 'media hollow' fits him. While my politics lean right, I'd be the first to say that Fox News has more than a few hacks on their roster too. The problems drama queen Brian Williams self-inflicted go far beyond the whopper of a lie he told about the helicopter in Iraq and he'll likely wind up getting the two women who run NBC News fired too. His Peabody Award winning Hurricane Katrina coverage is now turning up a few self-aggrandizing lies and I thought at the time they gave a very PC tilt of the blame away from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (now serving time in federal prison for 20 counts of fraud, bribery, and money laundering before, during, and after Katrina) and toward the Bush White House replete with the predictable racism allegations. That phony and biased coverage sent race relations spiraling downward in ways we are still feeling the effects of today.
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| The First Hipster? |
If Norman Mailer wasn't the first hipster then he saw the first hipster.
Love love love that link. The smoking, the conversation but especially that American accent which is slowly going extinct.
ReplyDeleteBack to topic what was Brian Willisms thinking?!?! But honestly the news albeit 24 hours a day is dreadful in almost every country. I have to watch at least three different channels to sift the actual facts from agenda. It's rather cumbersome.
Not only dreadfully inaccurate but always with an agenda so they assemble little data points to fit their narrative. Maureen Dowd's recent NY Times column says the NBC brass was warned a year ago about all of the BW lies yet they just signed him for 5yrs/$50mil and hailed him as a "journalist we can trust". Such Bullshit. Tom Brokaw was always an honest broker and despised BW.
DeleteI always wonder about those in the public eye who tell whoppers or even just over-embellish. This is the age of the internet, people! Or do they just believe themselves impregnable? To quote the old X-Files tag line, "The Truth Is Out There." Of course a lot of them are playing to audiences that swallow whole without chewing.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right une femme but in the case of his 'award winning' Katrina coverage his ostentatious preening had the intended effect to contrast sharply with the supposed uncaring Bush Administration who didn't want to help because those victims were black. It wasn't until after that narrative was cast when the pictures showing all those hundreds of school buses sitting in 2 feet of water that went unused by the mayor and his team to evacuate the needy away from the Superdome and the mayor and governor kept laying blame elsewhere. The Feds response was also dreadful but that was out of typical beauracratic incompetence and had no racial prejudice element whatsoever.
DeleteOh boy. To quote an old White House operative who at least was transparent: what a "shitstorm".
ReplyDeleteThe news is dreadful, and the characters who play it... it's not a show, people! We want the facts so we can be good citizens. I have to tell you G I think you would like my favourite show: Power and Politics with Evan Soloman, CBC 5-7pm, straight up politics.
The only thing I know of the CBC involves the scandal JIan Ghomeshi is embroiled in as I loved his show before the controversy which many NPR stations carried down here in the lower 48,
DeleteI don't think that White House operative you cite was transparent but was merely dealing with unhelpful events in a way likely to help his cause.
Hehe good point G.
DeleteWe're all scarred by the Jian scandal! I listened to him for years, now I can only think of these three creepy words when I read his name: Big Ear Teddy.
I think Big Ears Teddy would like to watch me teach Jian G some manners.
DeleteOh Brian...why? WSJ had a very interesting article about when journalist became rock stars. I at delete ver the news please.
ReplyDeleteBW courted celebrity as vigilantly as any Kardashian.
DeleteI gave up watching news on the box long ago. I now rely on the internet as my modern wireless and listen to BBC Radio 4 where news is the focus and not the person relaying the events of the day.
ReplyDeleteI hear you CD and I now certainly don't consider the BBC an honest broker after their covering the opening of the Iraq War with what I felt was a rooting interest or a high body count or casualties on the American side.
DeleteDarling G,
ReplyDeleteWe have no television so we are spared the horrors of presenters and ' Meeeja' personalities in the main. Indeed, when we are feeling particularly desperate about the state of the world we stop looking at anything that might loosely be termed 'news'..........an ostrich mentality, we know, but sometimes such urgent measures are needed.
We loved the little film with Mailer and his interviewer in a tobacco smoke haze talking of hipsters. A cowboy with no horse and no gun........yes, that would be our kind of hipster!
Darlings J & L,
DeleteI also have no telly but still monitor developments from my drab bunker. The Den always likes to know the 'lay of the land' prior to mission.
I do believe they said 'outlaw' with no horse or gun in that charming vid as a horse is a requirement for any cowboy or he faces reduction in rank to 'ranch hand'....
Darling G,
DeleteThank you so much for pointing out the distinctions between outlaws, Cowboys and ranch hands. An outlaw strikes us as a daring adventurer, a cowboy in all but name is a maverick in our eyes.......but, a ranch hand.....no, darling G, we are sure that you understand.....no, a ranch hand would never do!
Darling J & L,
DeleteI do beliece you'll be pleased to know, and hopefully soon witness that GSL has a vast arsenal of 'Night Moves' that some say inspired Bob Seger's little ditty. Over the years they have been given names by the mumerous young pups that watch, wonder, and hope to one replicate. One such 'night move' from GSL's mid-range is known as 'Ranch Hand Supreme' which has proven enormously successful over the years and would be more than enough to vanquish the beguiling Claire or any such vixen showing up in a 'peekaboo of naughtiness'...
'Ranch Hand Supreme' sounds more like an offering at a low rent burger joint than a sexy 'night move'...Claire
DeleteBeguiling Claire, I'm sure you'd be far more effusively poetic in your journal the following day feeling the fullness of womanhood,..
DeleteMy dear GSL, whilst I certainly enjoy reading fiction, I have yet to attempt writing it. I'm also a great believer in self-praise being no recommendation. Claire
DeleteBeguiling Claire,
DeleteIt is often through the reading and writing of fiction we discover higher truths. I'd recommend that you'll never find great artists among such great believers.
AWWWW, Y'all. Don't be so hard on Ranch Hands----they’re quite a breed in their own rights.
DeleteThe cream of the crop is George Milton, I think---everyman with too heavy a load to tote, but trudging on despite. And there’s also a little old nobody called Rowdy Yates, without whom perhaps . . .
Who WOULDN'T invite those two to dine and talk WAY into the small hours? We'd set them up in the parlor and invite people over.
You are quite right Dear Rachel but we were merely distinguishing them from cowboys and outlaws for our charming guests the Hattatts who I'm sure would always use their considerable influence. as would I, to help any Ranch Hand of good character get a horse and realize many a boy's lifelong dream of becoming a cowboy. We'd always want to help George Milton and his friend Lennie Smalls 'live off the fat of the land' and any man named Rowdy is always welcome in the Den or Red Lion and we'd even have a few table scraps for his mangy red bone hound.
DeleteI don't watch American news at all, but Williams forgot the golden rule of storytelling: exaggeration and outright lying to make a story better is only acceptable at the end of a good dinner party when a lot of alcohol has been consumed and everyone else is over the top, too.
ReplyDeleteI agree Wendy as I've polished up an anecdote with a little artistic license in blogtopia for a giggle but actively court a persona of unserious bombast & bluster with alter ego alias, avatar, etc. BW lies to advance his own cause and pick winners and losers in the arena of politics.
DeleteI have watched Brian Williams since Peter Jennings died. Maybe he embellished his stories because he thought they were too drab, otherwise? The whole thing is tragic. He should just RESIGN right now and be done with it. Forget the six months leave w/o pay, he's toast. And he isn't a Peter Jennings, either - I adored that man.
ReplyDeleteBW certainly is toast and those 2 ladies running NBC News are trying to save their own jobs now as Maureen Dowd reported in her Sunday column they had prior knowledge of BW's nose growing, did nothing, and signed him at 5yrs/$50+mil and they just had a mess with Meet The Press/David Gregory and the Today Show/Matt Laurer/Ann Curry. Expect a higher body count.
DeleteMy 'Estella' always had a big crush on Peter Jennings so I may bear a grudge but I'll never forget an interview he did with Jerry Brown very early in a Democrat Presidential primary with Jennings beginning the interview with:"So Governor Brown, you can't win so what are you trying to accomplish...." Brown was obviously furious at such unprofessional arrogance as was I but apparently the ABC brass felt PJ was entitled to make such pronouncements from on high. I remember never missing Walter Cronkite as a kid and remember his last broadcast. Tom Brokaw always has been a class act.
I've often wondered, is a pure journalism even possible? I suppose there would be a better chance if media wasn't revenue driven and if the general public were more responsible and intelligent decision makers but as it is we just have to use our common sense. Unfortunately I don't think this is very probable for many.
ReplyDeleteI didn't catch the details on the Brian Williams story-why would he have to embellish his involvement in a news story? Was it an attempt to improve ratings? If the journalists are more exciting that means the news is more informative?
Ugh-I dont watch news anymore. If something is important I will look into it thru a couple of different sources but other than that the whole circus bores me.
I haven't seen a network evening newscast in at least 15 years but monitor events via RealClearPolitcs,a news consolidater, NYT subscription, Chicago Tribune subscription, Wash. Post, etc. We all had a giggle when they baited that trap for Dan Rather just prior to the 2004 Presidential Election that only would have worked if DR was stupid, lazy, and irresponsible and he outperformed everyone's wildest dreams in all 3 of those categories as he rushed in, seized with self-righteousness, and immediately went on air without even the slightest bit of vetting as he had the story of his dreams....even Evelyn Waugh couldn't create a character as ridiculous as Dan Rather.
DeleteI never grew up with any of these people and never watch American news so I know Mailer from Vanity Fair at the dentist but that's about it. Like the media hollow thingy though...
ReplyDeleteThere was a great piece about meeja stars and celebs on NPR, talk by a philosopher and he said they've (he and his philosopher colleagues) have joined the long list of talking heads interpretating all that going on. They set up a new website. He said after his colleague sold 300 books about pure philosophy and they looked at the MailOnline stats (40 million hits a day) they thought better to join in rather than try and forge ahead as they were..
Jody,
DeleteThis is rather confusing for the Den's vast international audience not weened on American Telly news. You introduced me to another hip term so with American TV meeja, GSL is Donnatella !
We're becoming infected by the US style news reading anchor here too… I was watching CNN (which we get the Asian version of here in OZ, it's based out of Hong Kong), and watched a former Australian news reader reading something horrifying (maybe about ISIS or terrorism) in this glib plastic newsreadery voice that is not the norm here. No sense of gravity or horror.
ReplyDeleteBut all the made up stuff takes the cake. Makes Will Farrel's Anchorman movie look like it was actually based at NBC headquarters…
I watch our SBS news for a true picture of World News. It's kind of the Migrant tv station representing cultural diversity here, so they cover conflicts/ politics etc in all sorts of parts of the world that otherwise won't make the mainstream news.
As a boy growing up, my favorite TV show was the evening news, I read our newspaper and news magazines from cover to cover and was always interested in hearing the best analysis from various political perspectives. What we have these days is too often biased info-tainment.
DeleteI honestly don't know what to make of the Williams thing. Part of me thinks, Yeah, fire him, the other part thinks, As if every single one of those lead anchors didn't do Whatever It Took to get those jobs! I don't understand why NBC would suspend him. What's the point of that? As for Mailer, oh my dear GSL, I am not a fan and never was. He always seemed so full of himself (not unlike Brian Williams).
ReplyDeleteMy dear Jill,
DeleteThis 'suspension' is really a move to buy time and keep all options open for NBC brass now on the hotseat themselves. Nobody really believes BW is coming back and they'd love him to resign and forgo over $45+mil still on his contract and it's a near certainty a financial settlement is being negotiated.
Norman Mailer could be quite a handful and many people shared your view but GSL loves big personalities or people full of themselves when they have genius level intellect which Mailer certainly did and BW clearly does not.
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ReplyDeleteI don’t know how should I give you thanks! I am totally stunned by your article. You saved my time. Thanks a million for sharing this article.
ReplyDeleteVery informative, keep posting such good articles, it really helps to know about things.
ReplyDelete