BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
Monday, March 08, 2004
BUSH'S 9/11 COMMERCIAL.
Uncharacteristically, Media Log has been unable to muster any outrage
over George W. Bush's use of 9/11 imagery in his first round of TV
commercials. I'll read something from someone who thinks it's no big
deal - like John
Ellis - and find myself
agreeing with him. Then I'll read something on the
other side, and end up
agreeing with that, too.
The ad is titled "Safer, Stronger,"
and you can watch it at the Bush-Cheney '04 website.
As far as I can tell, the only objectionable part is a very short
scene - so short you'll miss it if you blink - of a flag-draped
stretcher being carried out of the wreckage of the World Trade
Center. Watch it and decide for yourself.
From my perspective, Bush's one
shining moment lasted from his megaphone-wielding appearance at
Ground Zero through the first rumblings of the war-to-come in Iraq.
During that period, he provided strong leadership and did a good job
of prosecuting the war in Afghanistan. He's got every right to talk
about his performance during those critical days. Indeed, when you
look at the rest of his sorry record, it's the only thing he's got to
talk about.
Since I don't find the ad morally
repulsive, I guess what I'm left with is the tactical stupidity of
including that one image. Check this
out, from Friday's Boston Globe:
In deciding to include the
Sept. 11 images, Bush advisers said they made a calculated risk
and expected some family members and Democrats to complain
regardless of how sensitively they handled the subject. The only
other alternative, they argued, would have been to ignore the
terrorist attacks altogether - an unacceptable option eight months
before the election.
Sorry, but that's ridiculous. I
think if the campaign had made one change - substituting that image
of Bush at Ground Zero for the flag-draped stretcher - then there
would have been little or no complaining. The bottom line is that
Bush doesn't want the 9/11 families out there denouncing him. By
pushing the imagery just a bit too far, he turned what should have
been a positive for him into a negative.
PULITZER TIME. The Boston
Globe is up for two Pulitzer Prizes, according to a
list
that leaked to Editor & Publisher (via Romenesko).
Ellen Barry, now covering the South for the Los Angeles Times,
is a finalist in beat reporting for her coverage of mental-health
issues.
Patricia Wen is up for the
feature-writing award for "Barbara's
Story," the tale of a
dysfunctional single mother who is persuaded to place her two sons in
foster care. (And by the way, I know the Pulitzers don't work this
way, but Suzanne Kreiter's photos are just as important to the story
as Wen's writing.)
CORRECTION OF THE WEEK. And
it's only Monday! This
appeared in Sunday's New York Times:
An article in Arts &
Leisure on May 4, 1997, about Pat Boone's venture into heavy-metal
music omitted attribution for a critic who said Mr. Boone's album
"Pat Boone in a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy" was "an affront
to everybody who would consider heavy metal a serious musical
form." The comment, from Andy Secher, editor of Hit Parader
magazine, appeared in the March 31, 1997, issue of Insight
magazine. A request for an acknowledgment went astray at The Times
and was renewed last week by the writer of the Insight article,
John Berlau.
Not quite seven years, but better
late than never.
IT'S OFFICIAL: BARNICLE'S
BACK. The Boston Herald today announces
that Mike Barnicle will write a twice-weekly column beginning
tomorrow. Publisher Pat Purcell says, "It's not every day that you
have an opportunity to hire a newspaper legend."
Actually, the Herald could
have hired Barnicle any time during the past five-plus years. It's
just that, until now, the paper's standards were too high.
The move was first
reported by Media Log on
Friday.
posted at 9:11 AM |
|
link
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
