Mass Media Madness and Other Things

I guess I have my nerve needling Bill M. about the time gap between posts. What's today? Thursday? Is it still Thursday? Is it still July?

It's just... ever have one of those periods when there's so much on your mind that you can't untangle and sort it out to get it down on "paper" in a coherent way? Or something swirls around in your head that you'd really like to set down, but in the moment you're just not able to write? You're traveling. You're elbow-deep in work. You're literally in the middle of a conversation. Your nose is in a book--a good one--and something in the text triggers a thought that starts nagging at you; now you're torn: do you close the book and grab notebook and pen to scribble your thoughts or stay with the story?

Here's one thing that's on my mind: I'm still pissed off about that New Yorker "radical/Muslim" Obama cover. The minute I saw it my jaw dropped--and I'm sitting here still feeling blindsided by its nasty cluelessness. All's fair in the historically down and dirty game of national politics I guess, this kind of thing is not new, I know, but nevertheless what the hell? This is THE NEW YORKER we're talking about--the folks who supposedly like Obama, the ones who are on our side. This came from so out of left field (or maybe more accurately "right field".) What were they thinking? Should they have run it?

Well...I'm uncomfortable with censorship, with saying things can't be said or shown. And the NY editorial management has defended its July 21st cover insisting it was meant to satirize Republican demonization of the Obamas. But how many people looking at that cover can we trust to understand that? Images, whether photographic or illustrated, are powerful, more powerful even than any words used to explain or justify them. (Just ask the Danish) I don't remember at the moment what the reported percentage is, but a significant number of American voters actually believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. Which shouldn't matter. But, especially in these post-9/11 times, and in an election cycle, it does.

Oh, and there's also the matter of that Orange County, Florida billboard, the one with the image of the burning, crumbling WTC towers and the words "Please Don't Vote For a Democrat" on it--I know I shouldn't be, regardless I'm dumbstruck, speechless.

Except to ask: how low? How much fucking lower can anyone go? That billboard was reportedly commisioned by a St. Cloud businessman-musician named Mike Meehan, who also advertises on his website a CD--yours for only $5--called "The Republican Song" which includes the chorus "Don't vote for a Democrat". I understand a video is also available. Well, of course. And do you suppose either bothers to acknowledge, even peripherally, that the WTC tragedy happened on the watch of a REPUBLICAN administration?

I'll go out on what is probably a very short limb here and say no.