from YouTube.com
This clip is old by now — from Tuesday, which might as well be 1993 for the purposes of the 24-hour news cycle — but still worth a look as Jon Stewart follows in the footsteps of his colleague Stephen Colbert and totally calls out the networks on the companion footage they use to illustrate the Mel Gibson story. Special props for the "Man Without A Face" reference (also from 1993!), which is not only hilarious on its own, er, face but technically isn't entirely accurate based on the fact that Mel Gibson's character in that film actually did have a face, just a kind of weird and melty-looking one.
from NYTimes.com
In the 24-hour news cycle, tomorrow's bad news for Mel Gibson hits today: according to tomorrow's Sunday Herald Sun, Mel Gibson once had ties to the Australian League of Rights, a right-wing group well-known in Australia for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. Says the Herald Sun: "The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews." (Who, presumably, are responsible for all the wars in the world.)
We'll get to the particulars of the story in a moment; right now we just want to make the point that this is, once again, an examle of how this story is advancing online. I noted yesterday on the NPR blog that the news about Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic tirade was broken online and disseminated immediately via the internet, before traditional print outlets had the chance to do their reporting and, more importantly, before Gibson's people had a chance to react and spin accordingly (note that the tack taken by the New York Times, rather than reporting on the actual story, was more about how quickly it had spread). Here, just as the Mel-Apologized-Let's-Just-Forgive-Him-And-Move-On machinery is gearing up (here, here, and here, for example) is evidence that actually there is a precedent for these views, that he does have a history of anti-Semitism and, per his fulsome apology wherein he stated "I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot," this might throw some light "where those vicious words came from during that drunken display." That's all from a story dated tomorrow, halfway around the world. Another really good example of how the digital age is changing how news unfolds, not only in the speed with which new facts are delivered but in how that impacts the response.
Back to Mel: apparently in 1987 he campaigned for a friend, Rob Taylor, a League of Rights member who ran (unsuccessfully) in a regional election. Per the Herald Sun:
Charles Pinwill, a former Queensland state director of the League of Rights, said he knew Gibson's father, Hutton, and said Gibson was interested in the league's ideas."They were never members of the league, no. But we never really recruited members, just support. (Mel and Hutton) were interested in some of our ideas," Mr Pinwill said.
Recall that Hutton Gibson is an on-the-record Holocaust revisionist who has said that the Holocaust was "mostly fiction." Prior to last week's drunken hate-spewing DUI kerfuffle, Gibson drew criticism for not distancing himself from his father's remarks.
from WSJ.com
Wow! Katie Couric is going to anchor the CBS Evening News! In a dark suit! And PEARLS! Awesome!
Sigh. The WSJ has snuck a peek at the new CBS promo for the news and thinks it's really, like, groundbreaking that KatieCouric has opted for a simple dark suit and pearls for her signature newscast look, as opposed to the more colorful togs she sported on the set of her MORNING SHOW that was often FILMED OUTDOORS IN THE SUNSHINE. I mean, what is shocking about this? Stop the presses, today Katie's wearing gravitas-inspiring gray! Wow, did you hear what she just said about the Middle East? She's wearing navy!
Well, to the WSJ, at least, it's news. According to "Anna Wildermuth, a Chicago image consultant" Katie's look sends the message of "elegance, authority, seriousness," but God forbid not too fobidding to want to go and have a coffee with like that snooty Elizabeth Vargas. I'm not making this up; according to retired ABC News reporter Judy Muller Vargas "came off icy and not like somebody we would want to go next door and have coffee with." Well, ladies, that's the price of gravitas.
Sure, fine, Katie Couric is news and everything from the new CBS set to their fun new jingle is worthy of note. A slight image recalibration is obviously worthy of note, too. But this article is reeeaaally reaching, and breaking female anchors down to their clothes amidst the endless push-me-pull-you of gravitas and approachability is getting really, really old.
Jay Rosen
The following resolution was passed Friday by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) which is the leading professional body for academics in journalism and media studies. (I am a member.) It was brought to the floor of the annual convention by David Mindich of St. Michael's College, author of Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News (Oxford, 2005).
The key passage is: "The membership of...
