That being said, this season has been refreshingly solid.  Aside from the atrocious “Let’s prosecute Cheney!” season premiere, each successive episode has been vintage “Law & Order.”  The most recent episode (”Dignity,” October 23) bordered on spectacular.  *Spoiler alert*

It did not begin auspiciously.  The opening sequence set the stage for yet another warmed-over episode wherein an abortionist is murdered, and the rest of the program consists of detectives trying to determine which anti-abortion nutter did the deed.  The show’s writers usually permit one character to utter a single token pro-life line (”Just because you might disagree with abortion doesn’t justify this violence!”), while the oh-so-reasonable pro-choice characters get the last word.  Having seen this template before, I almost flipped channels.  It seems as though at least one of the L&O spinoff series airs a “new” abortion-doctor-murder episode every year.  One wonders if more abortionists have been slain on this fictional television franchise over the past 20 years than in real life.

But last week’s episode marked a dramatic departure from the familiar, biased trope.  After detective Bernard makes a few forceful pro-life points in an impromptu squad car debate with his partner, ADA Cutter jumps into the fray. He professes his pro-life views and refutes a condescending response from his pro-choice colleague (Rubirosa) by citing the “turning tide” of public opinion and mentioning that most Americans now consider themselves pro-life.  Apparently Mr. Cutter’s been checking the latest Gallup stats. Rubirosa replies by pointedly referring to those who share Cutter’s views as “anti-choice,” at which point the reliably liberal District Attorney, Jack McCoy, mentions his own daughter’s change of heart on the issue.  She was staunchly pro-choice, he explains, prior to seeing the image of her unborn child in an ultrasound.   End of scene.

Jaw-dropping stuff.

Later in the episode, it’s revealed that the victim was performing illegal, post-birth abortions–more commonly known as murder–at his clinic.  A whistle-blower nurse informs the DA office that she left the deceased doctor’s practice after witnessing a failed abortion result in a live birth, and then a callous killing.  (For those who follow the abortion issue closely, this story may sound familiar.  It also raises an issue that was used to highlight the radical pro-abortion record of a certain post-partisan Messiah during the 2008 campaign). On the stand, the nurse testifies about the repugnant practice, explaining that the baby’s corpse was discarded as “medical waste.” This revelation horrifies both Rubirosa and the jury.

Later in the trial, another witness describes her decision not to abort her severely disabled child.  Her story moves the jury to tears.

The prosecution then calls an expert witness–a doctor–who testifies that his murdered colleague was doing good, medically necessary work.  Upon cross-examination, he’s exposed as a pro-abortion zealot; willing to perform third trimester abortions for any reason, no matter what the law says.  His contempt for Christians and pro-lifers is palpable, and turns off the jury.  The prosecutors are left wringing their hands about how poorly he performed on the stand.

Again, stunning.  I kept checking the channel guide–this really was “Law & Order.”

As the episode drew to a close, ADA Rubirosa offers the following admission:

“I grew up thinking Roe v. Wade was gospel.  That a woman’s privacy was inviolate.  But after hearing that woman on the stand talk about her baby dying in her arms, I don’t know.   I don’t know where my privacy ends and another being’s dignity begins.”

Cutter (the pro-life one, remember) tells her that in the current case, the distinctions are pretty black and white, and that it’s their job to put away the bad guys.  To which Rubirosa replies,

“I’m glad it’s so clear-cut for you, Mike.  Unfortunately, I can’t leave my soul in the umbrella stand when I come into work in the morning.”

You can watch the scene described above here.  In case you were curious, the trial ends with the abortionist’s killer being convicted.  (A verdict that all true pro-lifers would applaud).  ”Dignity” provided viewers with a nuanced, layered depiction of a hot-button social issue that did justice–and then some–to the conservative position.

To the writers and producers of “Law & Order,” Bravo.

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Bush, Cheney, President Obama, Green Czar Van Jones, Obama Speech to School Children, GM, Chrysler, California Wildfires, Congressman Joe Wilson, Obama’s Health Care Speech, Associated Press, Katherine Heigl, Margaret Cho, and Charlie Sheen.

Yes, it looks as though unless Ahmadinejad, the ghost of Joseph Stalin or the surviving members of the Weather Underground show up to steal his thunder, Hugo Chavez (whose Indian name is “He Who Rides Little Girl Bike“) is the toast of the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

The hoopla surrounds Oliver Stone’s latest documentary “South of the Border,” which the the L.A. Times describes as a “counterpoint to the prevailing U.S. image of Chávez … as a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure.”

I’m still unclear how one is supposed to represent a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure as something other than a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure, but rest assure Oliver — Can I play soccer with Uncle Hugo?– Stone gave it the old college try; the same Oliver Stone who portrayed the Abraham Lincoln of the Middle East and his Vice President as warped and sinister.

Meanwhile, in a land where enabling evil is considered a bad thing, events are unfolding that probably won’t be found as a helpful update in the “South of the Border” DVD release:

Tens of thousands marched through Venezuela’s capital on Saturday to protest what they call growing authoritarianism by President Hugo Chávez.

And you can practically see The Beautiful People, hands over ears, chanting nanananaIcan’thearyounanananaIcan’thear you… over the news that Chavez will “democratize media ownership” through the closing of up to 100 radio stations “biased against the Chavez government”:

Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was “democratizing” media ownership. …

Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in President Hugo Chavez’s government said[.] …

The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close over 100 stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private media that the government says are biased against Chavez’s government.

What a relief that perverting the language could never lead to something like that here in America.

I go to bed full of hate and wake up the same.  I hate blacks, Hispanics, gays, women, abortion doctors, liberals, Lefties, Democrats, you name ‘em, I hate ‘em if they’re not like me. I especially hate President Obama for being black. Just ask Janeane Garofalo, although being a Stalinist Socialist doesn’t help Obama’s cause any with me. Fact is, Obama could be a GOP Michael Steele Uncle Tom, and I’d still hate him even more than liberals hate Steele. Skin color trumps all. Thank God I was born the right color, or I’d probably kill myself. Wait, the hoods are dry! Be right back.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Joe is my hero and role model, Archie Bunker a distant second, Ted Nugent a close third. I have posters of all of them lining my walls, alongside such conservative Republican heroes as Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler and Darth Vader.

I used to have one of Robert C. Byrd, but he lost me when he left the Klan and became the Conscience of the Senate. Whatever that means. Didn’t know the Senate had one. But I never understood that. How can a white guy in good conscience leave the Klan? But I digress.

I have a mega-gun collection and a huge stockpile of hollow-point Teflon-coated ammo that’s just itching to be used. Haven’t decided yet on which abortion doctor I’m going to target next. Maybe I’ll just go down to the border and shoot brownskins for sport. dHs, sToP mE BefORe I KilL aGAiN!

And though I really hate homos like the Good Book says I should, I spend a lot of my free time cruising aiport rest rooms and tapping footsies like Larry Craig. If I’m lucky, I’ll get some real teabagging in. If not, I’ll try to get some in at my local Tea Party. Of course, my shotgun wedding Handmaid’s Tale wife with the nice tooth doesn’t know about any of this. She’s usually home watching Jerry Falwell and the “700 Club” most of the day, and role-plays being Sarah Palin for me at night. Is that kinky or what? God, I love my wife! Would never be unfaithful to her with another woman.

As to being with other men, well, nobody in the GOP’s perfect. But it beats being a liberal! Except for the part where they get away with murder, and we get stoned for jaywalking.

Our favorite day is Sunday, named after our favorite radical fire-and-brimstone preacher Billy Sunday. We sing hymns like ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ and wash ourselves clean in the Lord. Really necessary for me. A conservative Republican can get real dirty during the GOP workweek. Good thing my wife’s family is rich. Her toothless redneck dad gave us a beat up ‘78 Ford pickup with NASCAR and confederate flag bumper stickers and an Easy Rider rifle rack. Pride of the Bayou!

I want war. Lots of it. Want the economy to get a boost? Works every time! Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran! Of course, in the interest of disclosure, I must confess to being a consultant for Blackwater, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and Big Oil. And so what if we all staged 9/11? Made a ton of dough and dusted enough Islamist ragheads to fill the new Yankee Stadium, didn’t we?

Liberals are such pussies! And screw Global Warming! I WANT the world to burn! Only then can Jesus bring Paradise to earth. Speaking of which, where’s that landing strip for Christ in Yosemite National Park James Watt put on order? Days are gettin’ short! And don’t forget, Jesus is white, and might is right. I’m sorry, what was the problem with slavery again?

Actually, I have to confess yet again. All the above is only what I aspire to be, i.e. the best GOPer Repug Nazi I can be. Like most mortals, I fall far short of my goals and dreams. I don’t even own a gun or hollow-point Teflon-coated ammo, but I support the Second Amendment, which is just as bad. May as well be a co-conspirator with Scott Roeder and James von Brunn.

I detest the corrupt Mengele-like genocidal statutory rape-hiding abortion industry that needs reform even more than Iran’s government, but support a woman’s LEGAL right to choose. It’s the law. Until and unless it’s overturned, what can you do? Shoot up clinics? Ya, in my Rethug dreams!

I’m really not a bathroom footsie player, or like cock and hairy ass in general. But gay marriage is legal in my home state of New Hampshire and I haven’t been sodomized yet, so live and let live. What can I say, I’m weak. And even though as a six-year veteran I believe in General Douglas MacArthur’s axiom that “no one hates war more than the soldier,” sometimes they just gotta be fought if civilization as we know it must survive. Be it a cold war with the Russians or hot ones with Hitler and bin Laden, the dirty deeds must be done. And without quarter until victory is complete.

Fight a war to the end or don’t fight it. You can’t do both. One way assures victory, the other defeat. The Art of Fighting Without Fighting doesn’t work with the abu Musab al-Zarqawis of this world.

Worst of all? I was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now THAT’S a confession! How can I ever face my conservative redneck Republican sister-banging moonshine-guzzling Zionist drinking buddies at the NRSC and AIPAC again?

I put it all on the table, people. Now, if only liberal Democrat lefties would freely admit to all the world that they’re all hypocritical, mentally disordered, drug-addled, tree-hugging, America-hating, nihilist anarchist recruiting office-bombing, terrorist and dictator-loving, tinfoil hat, limp-wrist pansy spoiled brat full-grown trust fund Stalinist toddlers who couldn’t get gangbanged by the Green Bay Packers hard or fast enough (practice squads included), maybe we’ll get somewhere in this country.

I seek progress, not perfection. We can all sit down together and have one big ideological circle jerk. Get it out of our systems, you know? Hey, we’re all Americans here! Confession is good for the soul. Or your metaphysical, Pagan or Wiccan existential plane of being, depending on your religious or non-religious proclivities and inclinations.

God, I feel so good now. Got it all out. Okay, let’s hear it in the comments section now. No holding back. That includes you, Unrighteous Bubba and Cognitive Dissonant. Tell us about all the kinky things you like to do with tinfoil, Vaseline and vacuum cleaners while watching sick online German porn in your mothers’ basements

Yesterday, Independence Day, Vice President Joe Biden attended a naturalization ceremony at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.  During the ceremony 237 U.S. servicemen from 59 countries, including Iraq, were sworn in as citizens of the United States of America.  At the conclusion of this solemn, undoubtedly moving and inspirational occasion, and in the presence of his own son Beau (currently serving in the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, Delaware Army National Guard), this is what the Vice President of the United States had to say: ”As corny as it sounds,” he told the troops, “Damn, I’m proud to be an American!” 

Where to begin?  

OK, if you were really proud to be an American, Mr. Vice President, you wouldn’t find it necessary to preface that declaration with the words, “as corny as it sounds”.  If you were really proud to be an American those words wouldn’t sound corny to you.  Then again, if you were really proud to be an American you wouldn’t be serving under a President who spent his last trip overseas apologizing to the world on behalf of America.  You wouldn’t be serving under a President who either doesn’t recognize or simply doesn’t understand the concept of American exceptionalism.  You wouldn’t, it could be reasonably argued, be a member of the current Democrat Party.     

Joe Biden is known in Democratic circles as a “shoot-from-the-hip” type of guy, which means he’s known for shooting his mouth off on subjects he knows nothing about without the slightest regard for where he is or who he’s speaking to.  You might say that’s his trademark, along with the serial plagiarism and the hair plugs.  Well, yesterday’s outburst was vintage Biden.  It simply never occurred to America’s Number Two (as he’s known around my house) that it might be sort of…oh, I don’t know, moronic?…to stand up in front of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in a combat theater and tell them you think it’s corny to feel proud of your country.  Then again, Biden knows virtually nothing about the military despite his (much boasted-about) service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as any English-speaking adult who’s analyzed Biden’s, uh, “thoughts” on Iraq could tell you.  Like Vice President Dick Cheney (who I’m sure doesn’t think it’s corny to be proud to be an American), Vice President Biden sought and was granted five military deferments during the Vietnam War.  So like Senator Barbara Boxer, who recently scolded a brigadier general for (correctly and properly, as it turns out) addressing her as “M’am”, Biden might be forgiven for the stupidity of today’s remarks on the grounds that’s he’s simply ignorant of military culture. Which I guess would be something else for him not to be proud of.  Then again, it could be worse. Michelle Obama only started being proud of her country about a year and a half ago, and she’s the First Lady! 

But let’s say a reasonable person might, under certain circumstances, be feeling somewhat reticent, somewhat bashful about a full-throated declaration of pride in being an American.  Like, say, after visiting the Bill Clinton Presidential Library or attending a deceased senator’s memorial service with Al Franken or something like that.  OK, fair enough.  Personally I don’t get it, but I suppose that, in some hypothetical situation, the words, “I’m proud to be an American” might strike some hypothetical person as being somewhat corny.  But if there’s one person, in one scenario, who should never, ever feel that it’s corny to be proud to be an American, it would be: 

- The Vice President of the United States.
- Surrounded by hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women.
- Who have just become U.S. citizens.
- In a war zone.
- On Independence Day.
- You stupid moron, you.  

So on this July the Fourth weekend, please take a moment to contemplate the implications of Joe Biden’s casual, unscripted (thus, highly revealing) thoughts on what it means to him to be an American.  And after careful consideration if you still think an arrogant,  grinning, eye-blinking, speech-stealing simpleton like Joe Biden is qualified to be Vice President of the United States–  and Sarah Palin is not!–  I’d love to hear from you in care of this website.  

As for the rest of you: at the risk of sounding too corny, happy Independence Day to you all, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

The big topics of the week were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the presidential fly killing:

The election of Mahmoud was compared by the talk show hosts alternately to the 2000 Presidential and the 2008 Minnesota Senate elections. Fallon claimed that now that his opponent lost, he’ll go on to make a documentary about Global Warming.  David Letterman actually did a joke almost every single night, changing the punchline from Florida voting machines, to Pat Buchanan, Al Gore, Al Franken and Jeb Bush.  Bill Maher used Norm Coleman then criticized his audience for not knowing who he was talking about. The funniest line was Ferguson’s who claimed that Iranian politics have finally gotten as corrupt as Chicago.

Ferguson and Conan get the Writers Over Shoulders Award for making a joke about the fly being eaten like a lizard.  Ferguson speculated that it would be done by Cheney, while Conan put a computer animated tongue in the president’s mouth, snapping the fly off his wrist. Kimmel gets an honorable mention for putting a sound effect of flatulence behind the video so it looked like the President was trying to fan the odor away.

The Most Overused Person as a Punchline goes to Thomas Prusik Parkin, the man who dressed up like his dead mother to collect her social security check. David Letterman accused both Elton John and Barry Manilow of dressing like their mothers on alternate nights. The funniest line he said was that he was so good at dressing up like an old woman that Ashton Kutcher wanted to date him. (He told a similar joke the following night, saying if he wanted to look like an old woman he should have dressed up like Madonna.)

John McCain buying a hybrid was another big story of the week getting attention from Conan, Fallon and Letterman who used it for ageist jokes. Letterman claimed that a Hybrid to McCain would be a horse and buggy while Conan claimed that to McCain, hybrid meant an AM/FM radio. Fallon claimed that seven months ago he couldn’t use a computer, but now he’ll have a hybrid and a twitter account; perhaps he’s the new Benjamin Button.

Jimmy Fallon reached all the way back to an administration that predated his talk show career to deliver the Lamest Attempt at an Obama Joke, claiming that George Bush tried to one-up the new President by killing a fly himself, but it took 20 minutes of clumsy two handed swatting. There were also a couple Bill Clinton as a predator jokes during the week. But the Oldest Presidential Reference goes to Stephen Colbert, who ran Richard Nixon’s quote about Bohemian Grove being “faggy.”

Most of the week’s Obama material centered on the fly. One exception was Jon Stewart who derided the President for trying to fix Health Care in the middle of a war on two fronts and trying to keep the nation from looking like it did in the Grapes of Wrath. But the Funniest Obama Line goes to Conan who claimed that while President Obama was on the phone talking to Phil Jackson and Dan Bylsma, Joe Biden got to talk to Tito Jackson and a real penguin.

The Most Interesting Interview of the week was Governor Mike Huckabee on the Jon Stewart Show. Governor Huckabee very clearly laid out the constitutional pro-life position for the Daily Show audience. Stewart, was defenseless against a rational case for the rights of the unborn, especially since Huckabee’s position was not based in religion, zealotry or misogyny–the straw men Stewart usually attacks. His audience also appeared stunned, as they were not able to perform their trademark trained seal-clap more than a couple times during Stewart’s humiliation.

The Angriest White Man is still Bill Maher, who after a brief flirtation with moderateness, struck back at those of us who congratulated his criticism of Obama. In a remarkably unfunny rant, Maher warned Republicans:

And as far as you folks on the right, who think that we’re now somehow in league: we’re not in league. I was criticizing Obama for not being hard enough on the corporate douchebags you live to defend.  I don’t want to be on your team, pick another kid.

Gee, all we did was compliment him for being fair.

Besides Letterman, perhaps there might have been another threat issued down to a host last week. It seems David wasn’t the only one, who had to apologize to his “sponsors.”

The shame for Bush’s whatever-he-did-every-day was palpable by the left. Ask your favorite lefty what Bush did right and they’ll likely only talk about his help with the Africa AIDS epidemic, and even then it was probably just to look good to all of those voters who are Africans with AIDS. They were ashamed of his Texas-ness, his swagger and for the first time we declared that “go-it-alone” wasn’t an American quality. Somehow, Kim Jong-il would be better under Obama. We would talk together, and he would listen. But Kim Jong-Ronery has upped his missile launches since Bush left office.

I’m still trying to figure out how Obama will blame Bush for the eventual missile attack on South Korea. The problem will not start with the Clinton administration, because we already learned from the college professors that bad things happened between 1980 and 1992, then nothing bad happened for 8 years. Then every evil in the world resumed between 2000 and 2008. I know we’re still not supposed to criticize the White House until the world’s longest 100 day honeymoon ends in 2012.

Given Obama’s failures, why does the left still feel a resounding victory just with Obama showing up? Because it was never about policies, given Obama’s speech to the Muslim world was so similar to Bush’s hand wringing that one wonders if they had the same speech-writer. We’re told that just Obama’s tone, his presence, his smooth leadership style is what makes the sale. But nothing is better with this president. Is this why he ran on Hope because that’s all I’m gonna get for four years?

I’m not impressed with his tone. I’d take great policies with horrible tone at this point. He reminds me of the Mommy-in-Chief promising to coddle every wound…real or perceived. He reaches out to apologize to Muslim countries I wasn’t aware we had sinned against. If anything, those governments should apologize to us for not being as great as America. Every country should apologize to their citizens for not being as great as this country. 

The Bush/Cheney policy was classic hawkism–that it’s better to be feared than loved. But who fears President Obama? All he needs is a powdered wig to go along with the beauty mark. Sure, he had the balls to shoot a teenage Somali pirate in the face but does he have steel will where we really need it, to take out the Kim Jong-Il family in the middle of the night? What regime in the world today is evil enough for him to change it? Tehran? Darfur?

Elites get real tough on enemies that don’t actually look you in the eye. They can talk real tough against big bad climate change because he won’t speak against them and blow up their embassies. President Obama took no time in his address to the Muslim world (Really? To every Muslim in the world? Will you ever address the Christian world?) to directly oppose Ahmadinejad. This is the new tone we’re all so excited about. Cowardice. Nuance. In the end I think the left just didn’t like a cowboy in the White House…just like the last one they hated.

Bin Laden has released another tape, Russia expands influence both in China and Europe all of whom lick their lips that a Chicago lawyer who loves being photographed in a swimsuit Jesus’d his way into the most powerful leadership position in the world. Fine we have a new tone. That’s a victory of astounding trivia.

We begin, as we often do, with “things we fail to realize”.  First, regardless of the extent to which we have absorbed a kind of reflexive, “hip” atheism in our lives without giving it any thought whatsoever, we have still grown accustomed to the idea of Vox Pop. The meaning of this term has undergone various insidious transformations over time, and especially in contemporary culture, which, yes, we fail to realize.  Vox Pop is short for the Latin, “vox populi” and originates in the phrase, “vox populi, vox dei“, or, “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.  Stop groaning and considering the threat of lawsuits as we are not talking about a Supreme Deity, except as metaphor for the ceaseless demands of particular populations to be given anything and everything they want at any time, preferably at the expense of others.  When the group wearing “Che” t-shirts stops cheering and stomping their feet to the tune of “We Will Rock You” we will continue. 

As we see, there are many for whom the idea that “the voice of the people is the voice of God” is to be taken literally, and more often than not, enforced as a kind of political formula at the end of a gun.  Who would like to see Dick Cheney given a blindfold and a Marlboro and stood against a wall and shot?  No?  Okay, take away the evil cigarette, then.  Yes, that’s a majority of hands, thank you.  But regardless of these sentiments, we fail to realize, as we so often do when quotes are taken out of context, that the original Latin statement, as addressed to Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, advises the king to ignore and disregard all those who keep shrieking “vox populi, vox dei“, as the mob is both populated with, and represented by, a bunch of lunatics.  Thus we arrive at the next thing we typically fail to realize, which is that the answer to the question, “Isn’t this supposed to be a democracy?” is, in a word, “No”.  In point of fact, this, meaning the USA, is a “constitutional republic”, or essentially a government ruled, not by individuals or groups, but by the rule of written law.  Vox Pop, then, is no more than anyone’s given opinion, whether insightful or absurd, whether that of the voice of reason or a lone nut, as voiced by a single individual or a massive crowd, at any particular moment in time.

As Mark Twain, who was once a famous American author, put it, “we all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking”. Thus, devoid of reason and enslaved by emotional attitudes, we assume that those who feel the way we do have the moral high ground and that no right-thinking person could feel otherwise, which is something of a stretch, given not only our inherent amorality but our increasing inability and refusal to think at all.  At any rate, Twain associated this with Vox Pop, which is what one hears when television journalists stick their microphones in the faces of people in the street.  Obviously, this is why media organizations employ people who are called “editors” when we agree with them and “censors” when we don’t.

Bearing these thoughts in mind, then, or, for the scientific materialists among us, maintaining the focus on the so-called “meaning” of these “words” by whatever as-yet undetermined but merely physical means they are held in the soft tissue contained within our bony skulls, we come to the final thing we fail to realize, which is the often unnoticed but ever-present medium by which the Vox Pop is conducted to our attention, and the filter through which it is processed in the transmission.  This, one might gather, would be the “Fourth Estate”, but it is present in virtually every transmission process of the Mass or Mainstream Media, whether it has any relationship to journalism or not.  Briefly, then, we look at first the one and then the other, with an eye towards more detailed analysis of specific examples in future lectures.

Among the “insidious transformations” of the vox populi previously mentioned as being visible in our contemporary culture, it requires no immense intellectual effort to realize the inherent connectivity between the fourth estate and the voice of the people.  The former once peddled its wares as actual hard-copy “print-media” and claimed-some assert strove for-objective reporting, or the dissemination of facts; the latter, as one might expect, predictably shouted their grievances and demands as loudly and perpetually as possible.  “The People”, naturally, are self- identified groups, who claim to speak for everyone; “The Press” distributes information on current events, which includes these groups and their causes.  Unfortunately, perhaps, it is the nature of objectivity to be difficult, which is another way of saying it is not effortless.  Therefore, like reading, doing homework or research, or holding a job for pay, no one wants to do it.  Too many words are involved, too much time away from whatever one happens to be “passionate” about, and it’s not fun.  It’s too hard to transcend the attachments of emotion and to cultivate the ability to discern facts from codswallop; imagine how impossible it must be to engage in probative analysis in quest of determining something such as whether or not a group’s cause serves as a smokescreen for its actual agenda and ultimate goal.

We know it can actually be done; we know it has been done in the past.  Some contemporary reporters have genuinely studied the concept of objectivity, know how it is practiced, and occasionally do it, if only to see what it feels like.  Some of you might actually be able to see it in action on a daily basis, provided your parents removed the programming block to the Fox News Channel.  Still, objectivity is rare and has lost its cachet among journalists, idealism and the desire to save the world being higher callings than simply telling the truth.  Hence, we see another case in which something that began as a vice has become nothing more than a habit, in that the voice of the news media now styles itself as the voice of the people.  How can this be so if the Vox Pop is not, in itself, the Fourth Estate?  It’s as simple as the press saying so, particularly when they reference what they are doing as “civic journalism”, “public journalism” or “activist journalism”.  Therefore it is no stretch at all to conclude that, as easy as it is for ideas to gain common currency through media saturation as opposed to education, it slips past our notice that the Voice of the Press, usurping the role of the Vox Pop, is now the voice of God.

Some of the more astute-or awake-of you may have already realized that the press is merely one facet of a larger and more potent means of cultural transmission, the one through which ideas and issues enter the public discourse and our daily attitudes almost as if by osmosis.  This is of little consequence to journalists and their editors because they are in the position of directing the action; issues they deem “serious” are taken as such by the Mass Media itself.  T.V programs, whether dramatic, comedic or satirical, follow their leads.  Films, popular music, books and talk shows do the same.  So one might say the Vox Pop Fourth Estate is more like the Herald of God, with the Mass or Mainstream Media having the omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of the Voice of God.  No surprise that one of the present undercurrents of the latter Voice is that no such thing as a God exists, since shedding that difficult-to-control belief would be essential in eliminating a filter of conscience between “media” and “self” making it possible, finally, to place all the contents of consciousness under the benign control of superior, enlightened beings who know what’s best for us.

So, having not yet looked at specific texts and subtexts, we have gained, some of us, insights into the processes by which they might be manipulated in order to influence opinion and dominate the public discourse.  To further explore how literary themes, both implied and stated, are manipulated in this way by processes through which the Mass Media tells its stories-and remembering Aristotle’s definition of art as a representation of reality-your homework assignment it to obtain and watch the two versions of the film Cape Fear. The original, filmed in 1962 and starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, tells the tale of a noble father and husband whose family is being stalked by an evil, ruthless criminal bent on revenge against the man who sent him to prison.  The re-make, released in 1991 and featuring Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro, uses the general outline of the same story.  The implications of the original subtexts are that “this is what we, potentially, can be”; it is obvious that the message of the later film is that “this is what we are, and all we are.”  It is up to you to determine the meanings of what these two distinct Voices are saying to you, and about you.

Until next time, be well and think carefully.

–SG

Hollywood slings around the phrase “speaking truth to power” as if it were cocaine at a Sean Penn movie premiere party.  And they particularly love slinging it around at the time of the White House Correspondents Dinner.

A couple years ago, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central was the beneficiary of the “speaking truth to power” Hollywood press machine.  He headlined the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, and laid ‘em in the aisles with brilliant lines like, “Over the last five years, you people were so good-over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn’t want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. … And then you write, Oh, they’re just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!” 

Yes, when you’re a leftist, spouting leftist Hallmark cards cribbed from Democratic Underground counts as humor.

But at least Colbert said all this to Bush’s face.  It took a peculiar kind of guts, but it took guts.  It wasn’t truly “speaking truth to power” – after all, Bush wasn’t going to send Colbert to the gulag or force him into re-education camp.  But by the watered-down definition of the media, it counted.

Wanda Sykes, by contrast, is the most gutless and feckless performer ever to grace the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Sykes, for those who haven’t seen her stellar work in gems like CondomNation, Brother Bear 2, and Over the Hedge, is a militant lesbian with a grating voice and an obnoxious strut.  She recently proclaimed during the California Prop. 8 debate that “Everybody that knows me personally, they know I’m gay … Now, I gotta get in their face.  I’m proud to be a woman.  I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”

Well, apparently she’s not so proud to be gay.  Because when given the opportunity to make jokes about the nation’s leading proponent of opposite-sex marriage, President Barack Obama, she said precisely nothing.  Instead, she chose to gently stroke his ego with jokes about his pecs, his dog, and his basketball skills.

Meanwhile, she saved her real ire for non-federal or non-active politicians and non-governmental figures like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.  To Obama’s hysterical laughter, she said that she hoped Limbaugh would suffer kidney failure and accused him of being the 20th hijacker.  She said she wanted Sean Hannity waterboarded by Keith Olbermann.  She attacked Dick Cheney, stating that if her child had a choice between getting in a car with Dick Cheney and a car with a stranger, she would tell her child to choose the stranger.

Courageous, to be sure.

But she saved her most despicable gibe for Sarah Palin, who was not attending.  Apparently, Sykes isn’t only a shrinking violet when it comes to her lesbianism – she’s a shrinking violet when it comes to her sex.  Noting Sarah’s absence at the dinner (her husband, Todd, attended), Sykes said that Palin had pulled out at the last minute.  “Somebody should tell her that’s not really how you practice abstinence,” she chided.

This is sexism of the highest order.  Sarah Palin didn’t get knocked up before her marriage – her daughter did.  Why didn’t Sykes blame Todd, who was sitting right there?  Or why didn’t she blame Levi, who knocked up Bristol?  Or why didn’t she blame Bristol?  By focusing on Sarah, she perpetuated the stereotype that the woman is utterly and totally responsible for each and every individual act of the child – a stereotype Sykes would surely reject were she not so blindly hateful of Palin.

The bottom line: both feminism and homosexuality matter less to Sykes than kissing Barack Obama’s butt.  She didn’t utter a single joke about Obama’s out of control spending.  Not one joke about his teleprompter. Not one joke about his visit with Chavez, his messages to Iran, his Cinco De Mayo screwup, his mastery of the Austrian language, his “world without nuclear weapons,” his spreading the wealth around, his ownership of the car companies, his tax-cheat employees.

And most of all, not a single joke about Dan Choi, the first gay Arabic linguist fired by Barack Obama under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.  Not a single joke about Obama’s interracially married parents and his refusal to stump for homosexual marriage.  Sykes pledged to “get in their face” about gay marriage, but refused to get in the face of the most powerful man on earth about it.  Instead, she chose to go after Rush Limbaugh and oxycontin – a choice for which she will surely be praised by the leftist media.

In certain times, such posturing buffoonery would have been ripped as “Uncle Tomming.”  Imagine Richard Pryor speaking at a White House Correspondents Dinner for JFK and failing to mention the civil rights movement, instead choosing to focus on Jackie Kennedy’s hairdo and JFK’s winning smile.

Nobody has the obligation to “speak truth to power” when given the opportunity.  Sometimes it’s okay just to be funny.  But if one is given the opportunity to speak truth to power, sees him/herself as a champion of “speaking truth to power,” and instead chooses to spend the time excoriating the power’s opposition, that would be sycophantic stupidity of the worst kind.

That would be Wanda Sykes.

Disappointingly, by the time I finally did see the show in 2004, the bits I loved ceased to exist and most likely had been banished to the “Late Show” archives.  Rather than attending my first show with eagerness, it was just a cheap way to kill an evening during a business trip.  Since I didn’t have a ticket, I knew I’d need to charm my way in.

A friend had told me that to get in the front row they have “audience scouts” outside the theatre looking for people who are attractive, friendly, expressive, and bubbly.  Being an actress I knew how to play that part, so I glammed up and put on my best New York artsy chic and set out to the Ed Sullivan Theatre.  The “audience scouts,” who looked all of about 14-years-old, were out in front waiting for their subjects to approach.  Oh, to be that young making so little money but holding so much power!  Knowing what I must do, I got my “bubble on” and with just the right amount of star stuck enthusiasm I approached one of the 14-year-old keepers of the audience paperwork!

I beamed: “I’ve been trying to get into see Dave’s show since the 80’s when he was on NBC! (Smile, gush, turning my womanly wiles to the young man who showed some flirt) OMG, how do I go about being in the audience?  And who’s going to be on the show tonight?” (They don’t reveal who the guests are in advance. My guess is they don’t want to lose audience members once they find out!).  The “audience scout” asked me a trivia question “Who is Dave’s assistant?.”  I answered “Stephanie” and I was in.  He gave me an index card with a specific color sticker on it and told me to come back in two hours and get in “THIS line…not that line…THIS line.” (As if “THIS” line was the waiting list for an organ transplant).

I went back to the apartment, took a nap (feigned excitement is exhausting), and went back at the designated time.  Well “THIS” line turned out to be the golden ticket. I was in “the chosen” group to sit in the front row.

Before the “audience wranglers” single filed us into the theatre, they gave a speech in the lobby.  First they told us that just before taping Dave comes out and takes questions from the audience.  They wanted us to be creative with questions, but no asking for a picture with him or a kiss from him, yadda yadda. Then they told us to “laugh, clap, and cheer loudly and heartily at EVERYTHING Dave says and does.  This is how Dave gets fired up.  The more clapping and laughing, the better show he’ll have, but no high pitched hooting.”  Perhaps Dave might confuse a hoot with a boo.

Wow, the audience holds Dave’s mood in the palm of their clapping hands. This is really shocking to me. Even attractive smiling people sitting in the front row can be anti-Obama.  Why would they give the audience that kind of ammo?  But I digress.  During Dave’s monologue he started Bush bashing.  I was a Bush supporter and just starting to become politically active at that time. For me the evening news was simply the boring stuff I had to sit through if I tuned in too early for “Entertainment Tonight” or the “Late Show.”  However, I did want to boo at the bashing once the rest of the trained seals stopped cheering, but being alone I didn’t have the courage.  I wouldn’t have been comfortable being publicly flogged by the “audience police” that were half my age.

To make my front row “Late Show” experience even worse, Diane Sawyer was the guest!  So, I curbed my boos and pouted until the show ended and I was released!  (Side note, the “Late Show” band live is amazing!)

Since then, my “Late Show” viewing has been infrequent.  I did happen to catch the show mid-March where Dave bashed Bush, Cheney, AND Clinton–an entire trifecta of been there, done that; after which he soberly stated “we finally have someone in the White House we trust.”  I waited for the punch line.  But holy cow, after a couple beats of dead, uncomfortable air and cricket chirps, he just moved on.

I haven’t watched since. I am NOW done with Letterman.  With one exception…I have decided to make it my mission, and to inspire my fellow BHers, to go see the show with the courage I couldn’t find: to “boo” at Dave’s Obama worship and redundant, tired old Bush diatribes.  I encourage you to arrive armed with allies; after all, there is safety in numbers.

The left is trying to silence our voices both socially and legislatively.  So with the media continuing their embargo against reporting any truths about the administration, the late night comedians ignoring the faux pas,’ blunders, and idiocies of the savior in chief, and Hollywood swooning over their royal hinies, it’s time to use the “Late Show” venue to do one little thing in the name of comedy…boo and hiss instead of staying silent while the lemmings cheer.

Go armed with a couple examples of what makes this president, like every other president, comic fodder,  just in case you’re the one Dave picks for the pre-show question and you ask, scratching your head, “Why aren’t you doing any Obama jokes?”

Whether it’s an uncomfortable question pre-show or a “boo/hiss” for some lame bit during the show, it would be fun to rock Dave’s mojo by making joyful noises against Obama the poseur lord. We could take up time and maybe even be ushered out. This would also remind Dave’s writers that there are still Republicans out in his audience!

One thing I know about performers: they can get glowing reviews, standing ovations, and thunderous applause, but they remember the harshest criticism, bad review, or night-long heckle more often than all the positive reviews combined.  Tina Fey even mentioned the critical fans on the internet in her acceptance speech for best actress at the Golden Globes. So, let’s start giving Dave a show he’ll remember with an audience that wants real hope for change.

I’m serious, anyone interested in a little “Late Show” guerrilla field trip, send me an email and let’s see how we can make this happen:

lateshow@comcast.net

PS – Let’s not stop at “The Late Show.” In New York City there is also “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for your “booing” pleasure (I can hear it from here!), “Colbert Nation” and in Burbank “The Tonight Show” just to name a few.  Go forth and exercise your right to “boo” while we still can!