BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
SCALIA'S EMPTY APOLOGY.
Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia is very,
very sorry, and those to
whom he has apologized seem very, very pleased. But what everyone is
very, very missing is that he didn't apologize for anything he
did. Rather, he apologized for the actions of a deputy marshal,
Melanie Rube, who confiscated a tape from one reporter and a digital
recorder from another during a speech by Scalia at a Mississippi high
school last week.
Scalia's letter to the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press is online here
(PDF file). Check out these excerpts:
You are correct that
the action was not taken at my direction; I was as upset as
you were. I have written to the reporters involved, extending my
apology and undertaking to revise my policy so as to permit
recording for use of the print media.
...
With regard to your further
suggestion that I direct security personnel not to confiscate
recordings - presumably even those made in violation of clearly
announced rules: Security personnel, both those of the
institutions at which I speak, and the United States Marshals,
do not operate at my direction, but I shall certainly
express that as my preference.
Can you figure out what Scalia is
apologizing for? I can't. And how would you like to be Melanie Rube
today? She may have been out of line, but don't you think she was
scared to death about what would happen to her when she realized two
reporters were violating Scalia's no-record policy? Why doesn't
Scalia apologize to her for putting her in an impossible
situation?
Talk about a meaningless
apology.
DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S TOO
WEIRD. I had assumed that Bob Dylan's appearance in a Victoria's
Secret ad defied commentary. But Seth Stevenson is giving
it his best shot in
Slate. Here's the ad,
in which a tres sexy model cavorts to Dylan's song "Love Sick"
while Zimmy himself pops up a few times, like an elderly lecher
trying to peer into the model's window.
Rather than attempt to explicate
this myself, I will merely note that "Love Sick" - which kicks off
Dylan's multiple-Grammy 1997 album, Time out of Mind - is
amassing a strange history. While Dylan was performing "Love Sick" at
the 1998 Grammys, a guy jumped onto the stage with the words
"Soy
Bomb" painted on his bare
chest and slithered around for about half a minute before being
hauled away.
From vegetarianism to
lingerie.
posted at 11:32 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
