BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
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For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Friday, July 11, 2003
"Give Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz the
boot." H.D.S.
Greenway explains why this
morning in a column in the Boston Globe:
The Pentagon seems to have
believed that Iraqi army units and policemen would come over to
the American side with their forces intact and begin working for
the Americans. It seems not to have occurred to them that another
scenario might unfold, that the soldiers and police would simply
melt away and that chaos would take over. The great failure of
Pentagon planning was that there was no Plan B if Plan A failed.
After trying to run Iraq on the cheap, Rumsfeld this week doubled
his estimates for the cost of maintaining troops in Iraq.
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz aren't going
anywhere, but that doesn't mean Greenway is wrong.
posted at 7:37 AM |
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A near-death experience.
Would same-sex marriage have helped Lisa Craig, Debbie Riley, and
their kids? In this morning's Boston Herald, reporter Jessica
Heslam describes a
horrifying Fourth of July attack
in East Boston that nearly cost Craig her life.
You could plausibly argue that
marriage would not impress the boneheads who preyed on this family.
Still, by normalizing gay and lesbian relationships, society can send
subtle messages about the way such relationships are
perceived.
It's rare, after all, to hear of
racist goons setting upon mixed-race couples anymore. So too could it
be with gay and lesbian couples.
posted at 7:37 AM |
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Media Log on the air. I'll
be Pat
Whitley's guest at 9 a.m.
today on WRKO Radio (AM 680). The subject will be 'RKO's decision to
return homophobic talk-show host to the airwaves after just a one-day
suspension.
If I survive, I'll also be on
Greater
Boston's Friday "Beat
the Press" roundup tonight on WGBH-TV (7 p.m. on Channel 2, midnight
on Channel 44).
posted at 7:37 AM |
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Thursday, July 10, 2003
Shannon O'Brien, on the other
side. Would somebody please tell me why this is a good
idea?
WLVI-TV (Channel 56) has announced
that former state treasurer Shannon
O'Brien is joining the station
as a "special assignment reporter," and "will focus on helping
Massachusetts' residents navigate consumer or governmental concerns.
The content will be driven by O'Brien's political savvy, insider
experience and law background."
Ethical concerns about the
revolving door aside, I just can't imagine how this is going to help
Channel 56 in terms of ratings (O'Brien didn't exactly connect with
voters in her 2002 gubernatorial campaign), credibility, genuine
usefulness, or anything else.
posted at 11:25 AM |
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Is Baron back in the game?
New York Post media reporter Keith Kelly says that Boston
Globe editor Marty
Baron was spied in the
New York Times newsroom yesterday, fueling speculation that
he's in line to become the Times managing editor -- most
likely under Bill Keller, widely identified as the leading candidate
to replace Howell Raines as executive editor. (Via Romenesko.)
Even before Raines and managing
editor Gerald Boyd resigned over the Jayson Blair scandal and its
attendant fallout, Baron was identified as a leading contender for
one of the top two jobs. The fact is that there just aren't all that
many big-time editors anymore, especially ones who -- like Baron --
have some Times experience under their belt.
Baron, a former Editor &
Publisher "Editor of the Year," won Pulitzers at both the
Miami Herald and the Globe, the latter for the paper's
monumental efforts in covering the pedophile-priest crisis in the
Catholic Church.
In the past few weeks, though,
Baron's chances had seemed to fade. As it has become increasingly
likely that Keller -- passed over in favor of Raines two years ago --
would get the top job, Baron's being a white male appeared to be
working against him. In the fevered game of media speculation,
publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was said to want a woman and/or an
African-American in one of the two top spots. In some circles,
Washington-bureau chief Jill Abramson was all but anointed as
managing editor.
Now, though, things may be moving
back Baron's way.
From the beginning, the managing
editor's job has seemed like a natural fit for Baron if Sulzberger were
inclined to go that way. Baron is only 48, and, given the problems
experienced under the Raines-Boyd regime, one would think Sulzberger
would be inclined to play it safe -- despite his reputation as a risk-taker. Baron would be a gamble as
number one; but as number two, with a clear shot at the top job in,
say, five to eight years, he'd be a natural.
Of course, this is all incredibly
speculative. As
Baron told me last month,
"I don't think there's any purpose served in speculating on that
prospect at all. Right now I'm here, I'm happy, I'm focused on what
I'm doing here, and I don't want to speculate on what might
happen."
The best quote on the subject comes
from Times metropolitan editor Jonathan
Landman, who recently told
the New York Observer's Sridhar Pappu: "I truly know nothing.
It's all a lot of people making stuff up. I don't know; you don't
know. Everybody's making stuff up."
In other words: take all of this
with a grain of salt.
posted at 8:47 AM |
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Well, that was quick.
The Boston Herald's Dean
Johnson and the Boston
Globe's Mark
Jurkowitz today report what
was obvious last night: WRKO Radio (AM 680) has decided to put
syndicated right-wing garbage-mouth Michael Savage back on the air
after a one-day suspension.
In yesterday's Globe, 'RKO
program director Mike Elder came across as someone who was at least
going to give
it some thought before
deciding whether to keep doing business with the homophobic Savage.
So in today's Phoenix, I've got an open letter to Elder,
documenting his long record of homophobic outbursts on radio and in
print, long before the rant that got him fired from his MSNBC show
last Saturday.
Well, Mike, read
it anyway. Maybe you'll
learn something.
posted at 8:47 AM |
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New in this week's
Phoenix. In addition to my letter to Mike Elder, I offer
some thoughts regarding animal
magnetism on the homophobic
right.
posted at 8:47 AM |
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Wednesday, July 09, 2003
The dog that didn't bark.
I'd missed this until I saw Robert
Samuelson's column in
today's Washington Post. But the US Supreme Court declined to
rule on a free-speech case involving Nike and an anti-corporate
activist from San Francisco named Marc Kasky.
Kasky had sued Nike, charging that
the company lied in press releases, letters to the editor, and on its
website about the working conditions of Nike employees in the Third
World. More to the point, Kasky asserted that Nike's statements
constituted commercial speech under California law, as subject to
regulation for truthfulness as ads about the performance of its
running shoes. While not conceding having made any false statements,
Nike tried to get the case thrown out on First Amendment
grounds.
I wrote about the case recently
("Don't
Quote Me," May 2), mainly
because I was intrigued by the involvement of the Boston-based
National Voting Rights Institute, which took the position that the
First Amendment should protect individuals, not corporations. It's an
interesting argument, though I think speech restrictions are never
worth whatever gain its proponents believe there is to be had in
terms of leveling the playing field.
One tidbit I picked up that I
didn't use now looks prescient. Stephen Barnett, a professor
at the Boalt Hall School of Law, at the University of California at
Berkeley, told me that though he was hoping the Court would rule
decisively in Nike's favor, his expectation was that it would punt
because the case had not yet gone to trial.
"My sense is that in the end it
will not be a great case, and the Court will decide very little,"
Barnett told me. "The way things work now, the Court has this rule
requiring final decisions, meaning that the case only comes up after
a final judgment, rather than an interlocutory decision like this
one."
Barnett called it exactly
right.
posted at 12:27 PM |
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More trouble for a guy who
deserves it. Gay-bashing hatemonger Michael Savage's
well-publicized firing from MSNBC isn't his only problem: his
talk-radio empire may be crumbling as well.
Ira Simmons reports on ChronWatch
that, because of a contract dispute in Savage's home base of San
Francisco, The Savage Nation has been yanked
off the air in New York City.
His show has also been
(temporarily?) suspended
in Boston at WRKO Radio (AM
680), the Boston Globe's Mark Jurkowitz reports today. Program
director Mike Elder tells Jurkowitz that he personally believes
Savage is "probably a homophobe," and that he will not tolerate an
outburst like Saturday's
MSNBC incident on WRKO's
airwaves.
This is all moving in the right
direction, yet the underlying hypocrisy continues to astound. Doesn't
Elder listen to his own radio station? Before MSNBC ever gave Savage
a show, he was already infamous for his references to
"homosexual
perversion" and "Turd World
nations" -- references that were broadcast repeatedly to WRKO
listeners since his being added to the line-up last year.
Savage's ridiculous
sucking-up
to a lesbian cop in the
debut of his TV show demonstrated that both he and MSNBC knew they
had to do something about his well-earned reputation as a
homophobe.
Hey, Mike (Elder, that is): take a
look at this
compilation by Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting. As far back as 1999,
the San Jose Mercury News reported, "Savage has apologized to
gay activists after saying he wished they would get AIDS."
Savage has reportedly also joked
about "the Million Dyke March," and has spoken out about "the grand
plan, to push homosexuality to cut down on the white
race."
On its website, WRKO has posted a
statement about Savage that concludes:
It is our hope that
Michael Savage will return to WRKO in the next few days. It is
clear that these comments were not made on his radio show, but
this is the same way we'd handle a similar situation with our
local talent. This is not a free speech issue, but rather an issue
of appropriateness and good corporate citizenship.
WRKO is certainly right about one
thing: this is not a free-speech issue. The station is part of
Entercom,
a corporate media conglomerate with stations across the country --
four in Boston alone. Its profits derive from the deregulatory
environment of recent years, in which the FCC has allowed a handful
of giant operators to gobble up all but a hardy few
stations.
Elder needs to understand this:
Michael Savage is a homophobe, and his homophobic remarks on
television were an extension of the homophobic remarks he's made on
radio. Does Elder care? He certainly will if carrying The Savage
Nation turns into a business liability.
Do advertisers really want to be
associated with such garbage? We'll soon find out.
posted at 9:00 AM |
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Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Savage cynicism. MSNBC is
getting praise in some circles today for firing talk-show host
Michael Savage after a homophobic outburst on Saturday. But why? He
was given a Saturday-afternoon gig this spring because his syndicated
radio show draws millions of listeners, featuring exactly the kind of
homophobia that lost him his MSNBC show.
The question isn't whether MSNBC
executives actually believed Savage could contain himself when the TV
cameras were rolling. It's quite a bit more basic than that. Did they
really think they could avoid the sting of homophobia by hiring a
homophobic host and then telling him not to act like a homophobe when
the TV cameras were rolling?
Even if Savage had managed to
behave himself on Saturday, he was still playing the hatemonger every
Monday through Friday. And, until this week, he had the imprimatur of
NBC News, which I guess used to mean something.
Washington Post television
columnist Lisa
de Moraes's acid lead this
morning gets right to it:
MSNBC was shocked --
shocked, I tell you -- to learn that its well-known homophobe host
Michael Savage is actually -- gasp! -- homophobic, and the network
has sacked him, effective immediately.
By the way, here is the worst of
Saturday's outbursts, as reported by de Moraes:
Savage: "So you're one of
those sodomists -- are you a sodomite?"
Caller: "Yes, I am."
Savage: "Oh, you're one of the
sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that?
Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing
better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got
nothing to do today -- go eat a sausage and choke on it. Get
trichinosis."
Savage, on
his website, claims that
he didn't know he was on the air. You can't make this stuff
up. He writes:
[T]his was an
interchange between me personally and a mean spirited vicious
setup caller which I thought was taking place off the air. It was
not meant to reflect my views of the terrible tragedy and
suffering associated with AIDS. I especially appeal to my many
listeners in the gay community to accept my apologies for any
inadvertent insults which may have occurred.
Now, even if Savage is telling the
truth, which I suppose is a possibility, he still wants you to
believe that he's not homophobic because he only makes grotesque
jokes about AIDS and oral sex in private. Oh, okay.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation takes the high road today, issuing
a statement saying that it
"applauded" MSNBC's decision. That may make good tactical sense. Why
not be gracious when your enemy finally does the right
thing?
But the real story is told in
GLAAD's overview of Savage's history of gay-bashing, "MSNBC
& the Anti-Gay Savage."
MSNBC.com carries only
an
Associated Press story
about the firing.
The website Michael
Savage Sucks appears to be
on vacation today, which is too bad. But it will certainly be worth
checking out when it's updated.
MSNBC deserves no kudos for finally
realizing that Savage was harming the reputation of the News Channel
That Nobody Watches. The operation's behavior has been so
unrelievedly cynical that you can only wonder why Savage was really
canned.
Was the MSNBC brass really "shocked
-- shocked"?
Or, given that Savage's ratings
sucked, did they just decide that now was as good a time as any to
pull the plug?
posted at 8:58 AM |
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Monday, July 07, 2003
Dwarfism and the new
eugenics. What were you doing on the Fourth of July? Probably not
reading the New York Times. That's all right. I was, and this
morning I want to call your attention to this
splendid column by Nicholas
Kristof about the ways in which genetic advances may eliminate
various types of disability -- including achondroplasia, the most
common form of dwarfism.
It turns out that Kristof has
family members in Britain who are dwarfs. He introduces us to one of
them, Tom Shakespeare, a scholar of genetics. I'd heard of
Shakespeare, but didn't know much about him. He seems like a pretty
interesting guy. Shakespeare has a website, which you can get to by
clicking
here.
The point of Kristof's column is
that what might seem at first glance to be an unalloyed good thing --
genetically engineered "cures" for dwarfism and other types of
disability -- could have disastrous consequences down the road. It
also happens to be a major theme of my forthcoming book on the
culture of dwarfism, Little
People.
posted at 8:44 AM |
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More on the dwarfism
conference. I've posted a
page full of links to
coverage of last week's Little People of America national conference
in Danvers. If I learn of more pieces, I'll post those,
too.
posted at 8:43 AM |
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How the Supremes came to realize
that gays and lesbians are people, too. So why did the US Supreme
Court issue such a progressive opinion in the Texas sodomy case? The
New York Times' Linda
Greenhouse explains:
The Supreme Court has
become a gay-friendly workplace where employees feel sufficiently
comfortable in their open identity to bring their partners to
court functions. Justice Powell's comment to one of his law clerks
while Bowers v. Hardwick was pending in 1986 that "I don't believe
I've ever met a homosexual" (untrue, considering that the clerk
was, in fact, gay) could not be uttered in the court -- or the
Washington or the legal profession -- of today.
If proximity leads to amity, then
let's say we all chip in and get the Boston Globe's Jeff
Jacoby a gay editorial assistant. Jacoby's two-parter against
same-sex marriage (here's part
one; here's
part
two) shows that he's out of
ammunition. But he's still firing away.
posted at 8:43 AM |
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More on the Republican Attack
Machine. Media Log would never be any more self-referential than
absolutely necessary. But Alan
Wolfe's excellent piece in
the Ideas section of yesterday's Globe reads like the flip
side of my recent piece on the down-and-dirty tactics of the modern
Republican Party and its allies in the media ("The
GOP Attack Machine").
It's heartening that a mainstream,
measured liberal such as Wolfe has concluded that the Republicans --
starting with George W. Bush -- have unilaterally shattered the
governing consensus necessary to make politics work.
Wolfe seems to think that by
sticking to their principles, the Democrats will ensure their own
defeat in 2004 -- but that may enable them to build for the future.
I'm not so sure that his short-term pessimism is warranted -- just
check out the headlines from Iraq and from the economic front on any
given day.
But he's right about this: politics
is a nasty game, and the Republicans are playing it a lot nastier
than the Democrats right now.
posted at 8:43 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
