Disabled Reporters To Star In MTV Show "How's Your News?"
Groups once stigmatized can try to shed the stigma by morphing into a subculture or a "community," or, if politically oriented, a movement.
It's happening or has happened with old people, fat people, transsexuals and countless others. In that spirit, MTV's new "How's Your News?" show can be seen not as exploitation of people who have mental disabilities but rather as the expression of a subculture that has much to contribute to the mainstream but never had much of an opportunity.
"Can be" is the operative phrase, because some people might still see the half-hour program -- premiering Sunday night -- as some sort of condescending abuse, especially because the executive producers are Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the smart-alecky pair who turned children into foulmouthed cynics with their callous "South Park" cartoon. But "How's Your News?" is clearly not in the "South Park" vein; it's upbeat and moving and the disabled or disadvantaged people who star in the program appear to exert enough control over the content to dispel charges that they're being used.
Loading comments…
Washington Post | Tom Shales | February 5, 2009 08:51 AM