There's always been a lot of shouting on both sides of the political spectrum about biased news reporting on both sides of the media. These arguments are actually pretty different from how they present themselves. If that made sense.
Look at the things around you right now. Maybe you're in your room, maybe you're outside. But look around. Do it. Right now. Observe everything around you. Now take a small part of your environment, and in your mind, try to turn it into a news headline. American Idol Still a Bad Show, Seat Currently Uncomfortable Says Ass.
Done?
Whatever headline you made, hold it in your head. Now look at everything else you didn't make into a headline. You picked something out of that other stuff and made it news. News-worthiness is not an objective attribute of something. You made a personal value judgement about deciding what to make into news Everything else around you was exactly as newsworthy, but you chose something.
All news is an inherent personal value judgement. While it may seem obvious that a headline should say 18-Car Accident on Freeway, there is no objective reason why it couldn't also be (regarding the exact same thing) Teens, Bored in Traffic, Decide to Play 'I Spy'. Newsworthiness is a choice.
Accusing someone of biased news reporting assumes the existence of unbiased news reporting. However, as I've discussed before, all news is a value judgement. There is no such thing as unbiased news. When people accuse others of reporting the news biased or unfairly, all they're really saying is 'your frame of reference is very different than mine, and I don't like it.'
The take-away point of this? I have no idea. I just thought it was something kinda interesting to think about.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Django Brings History Alive (To John Gillen, with love)
Django was a spectacular and well-told story, but it's brilliance extends beyond it's face-value.
Slavery existed in this country 150 years ago. That's within my generation's great and great-great grandparent's lifetimes. We as a country tend to have an inflated picture of ourselves, and since slavery is such a recent happening, it has been taboo in cinema. Sure, there have been some works about slavery, but no one did a war movie until the gritty realism of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. The same holds for slavery: there have been no hollywood blockbusters on the scale of Django Unchained that display slavery for what it truly is, unfiltered.
History textbooks do little to evoke the emotions of school kids. We students of history read statistics all the time about mass casualties, but no one breaks down in tears seeing that. We see old drawings of people wearing klan outfits, but that does not come close to evoking the fear and awe I felt watching the scene in which the klan crested a hill, wearing the masks out of the Strangers (http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/strangers_ver4.jpg), on horseback waving flaming torches. I felt the same fear I felt when I watched the strangers, both because of their similar masks but also because of both villains had the same malevolent intent. That one brief scene brought the klan alive for me. For the first time, I felt something of what it means to fear them.
Sure, we read about slavery in our textbooks, but nobody feels the revulsion or the disgust like they do when they actually see the people get whipped or see them hunted and torn apart by dogs. Nobody feels the hatred and contempt of slave-owners until they see how they treated their fellow man.
Now, why is this important? It is important because we as a nation have to face our demons. A people that ignores portions of their past learn nothing from it, and are doomed to be poorly prepared for the future. A similar story is of the Japanese, who to this day ignore the vast suffering they created in the WWI and WWII era's when they systematically raped and pillaged virtually all of east Asia. This is why till the day he died my grandfather held a grudge against the japanese. Ask anyone of korean, chinese, or vietnamese descent, and I'll bet you they have at least one family member who still hates the Japanese.
Django takes our past as it was and shoves it in your face. You can't ignore what slavery and the south actually were having seen this movie, it's wound up too closely to the plot. This is important because it shows all those southern pride, confederate flag-waving motherfuckers what they're proud of. Being proud of who you are as a person and where you come from is fine, everyone has a hometown, but is a problem when these people glorify a history full of brutality and oppression. It is a problem when they yell about the 'south rising again', it is a problem when they're still racist. Know who you're channeling.
We have racial problems in this country, and who knows if they'll ever be completely solved. But we cannot face them as a prepared people if we are too embarrassed about our history to learn from it. And if you can still be immersed in our history of slavery as Django Unchained does and you can still yell about your southern pride, then from the bottom of my heart GO FUCK YOURSELF
Also, Tarantino's directing was on point, but his acting could use some work.
EDIT: by the way, it's 'to john gillen with love' because he suggested I write something about movies. Well, here you go.
Slavery existed in this country 150 years ago. That's within my generation's great and great-great grandparent's lifetimes. We as a country tend to have an inflated picture of ourselves, and since slavery is such a recent happening, it has been taboo in cinema. Sure, there have been some works about slavery, but no one did a war movie until the gritty realism of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. The same holds for slavery: there have been no hollywood blockbusters on the scale of Django Unchained that display slavery for what it truly is, unfiltered.
History textbooks do little to evoke the emotions of school kids. We students of history read statistics all the time about mass casualties, but no one breaks down in tears seeing that. We see old drawings of people wearing klan outfits, but that does not come close to evoking the fear and awe I felt watching the scene in which the klan crested a hill, wearing the masks out of the Strangers (http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/strangers_ver4.jpg), on horseback waving flaming torches. I felt the same fear I felt when I watched the strangers, both because of their similar masks but also because of both villains had the same malevolent intent. That one brief scene brought the klan alive for me. For the first time, I felt something of what it means to fear them.
Sure, we read about slavery in our textbooks, but nobody feels the revulsion or the disgust like they do when they actually see the people get whipped or see them hunted and torn apart by dogs. Nobody feels the hatred and contempt of slave-owners until they see how they treated their fellow man.
Now, why is this important? It is important because we as a nation have to face our demons. A people that ignores portions of their past learn nothing from it, and are doomed to be poorly prepared for the future. A similar story is of the Japanese, who to this day ignore the vast suffering they created in the WWI and WWII era's when they systematically raped and pillaged virtually all of east Asia. This is why till the day he died my grandfather held a grudge against the japanese. Ask anyone of korean, chinese, or vietnamese descent, and I'll bet you they have at least one family member who still hates the Japanese.
Django takes our past as it was and shoves it in your face. You can't ignore what slavery and the south actually were having seen this movie, it's wound up too closely to the plot. This is important because it shows all those southern pride, confederate flag-waving motherfuckers what they're proud of. Being proud of who you are as a person and where you come from is fine, everyone has a hometown, but is a problem when these people glorify a history full of brutality and oppression. It is a problem when they yell about the 'south rising again', it is a problem when they're still racist. Know who you're channeling.
We have racial problems in this country, and who knows if they'll ever be completely solved. But we cannot face them as a prepared people if we are too embarrassed about our history to learn from it. And if you can still be immersed in our history of slavery as Django Unchained does and you can still yell about your southern pride, then from the bottom of my heart GO FUCK YOURSELF
Also, Tarantino's directing was on point, but his acting could use some work.
EDIT: by the way, it's 'to john gillen with love' because he suggested I write something about movies. Well, here you go.
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