|
|
Media Watch
by JIM EDMINSTER 2007-03-14
|
|
This article shared 2438 times since Wed Mar 14, 2007
|
|
The New Yorker ( March 12 ) carries disturbing news from South Africa: The entire leadership of the country, except for a very few dissident officials, is in denial about the fact that there is a ( fatal ) connection between HIV and AIDS. President Thabo Mbecki is still promoting homemade herbal remedies against AIDS, and so are his health minister and his director-general of health. One of their proteges—Zeblon Gwala, a truck driver with no medical training—is becoming wealthy selling his concoctions. A South African epidemiologist, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, points out that 30 percent of South African women under 20 are infected. Moreover, the figures rise as age does: 65 percent of 25-to-30 year old women are infected. Five and a half million people are infected there; there is no evidence that the local herbal potions work and the country's administration insists it's racist to discount the home brews.
The Anglican Communion, including the American Episcopal church, is very likely to split over gay issues. Good, says the New York Times ( March 1 ) , and good riddance. If the Americans are kicked out for their pro-gay ( blessing gay unions and allowing gay clergy, including bishops ) stance that will expose the English Archbishop of Canterbury as a 'quasi-colonial, quasi-papal figurehead,' it would be a rather awkward state for the bigoted African clerics who are spearheading the schism. The African churches have the numbers but the Americans have the bucks ( which they have always helped their brethren with ) . And, as the Times points out, this African technique of splitting off a few ultraconservative American congregations to join the African homophobes works both ways: What if liberal African ( or English, Australian, etc. ) congregations split off and affiliated with the liberal, pro-gay Episcopalians? Would Henry VIII even recognize the church he invented?
The Chicago Sun-Times ( March 2 ) wonders what Melissa Etheridge might do since the talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, that represents her has just signed on the anti-gay, right-wing radio host, Michael Savage—who told his audience that Etheridge receiving her Oscar made him want to puke and also that gay marriage that included children was 'child abuse.' As a matter of fact, what will the passel of pro-gay liberal stars such as Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Robert Redford—all in the CAA stable—do?
Is the remark 'That's so gay,' offensive? The Chicago Tribune ( March 1 ) reports that a high school girl, Rebekah Rice, who used the phrase was disciplined ( with a notation in a file ) . Her parents sued, saying that the phrase 'enjoys widespread currency in youth culture.' Hmmm: In case no one noticed, youth culture's language—as it stands—is so absolutely foul-mouthed and offensive to virtually every group of any stripe, that this is no argument at all. To put it bluntly, Rice and ALL of the others who use this term ( which originates in equating gayness with stupidity and weakness ) shouldn't use the term because it is homophobic and, yes, offensive.
|
|
|
|
This article shared 2438 times since Wed Mar 14, 2007
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | Media Watch 2009-09-09 - The New York Times Book Review (6/28 ) in its look at the new bio, Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love ...
|
| | Media Watch 2009-03-18 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the "Top-of-the-25" file, Mental Floss magazine (March-April ) has picked gay author Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On as the most influential of the 25 most important books of the past 25 years. ...
|
| | Media Watch 2009-02-25 Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - From the "History-Not-Mystery" file, Roger Ebert, movie critic extraordinaire, was a bit astonished in his question-and-answer column in the Chicago Sun-Times (Dec. 5) when a writer criticized him for spoiling the plot of Milk, which he ...
|
| | Media Watch 2009-02-25 Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - From the "Subculture-Merges-Into-the-Uberculture" file, a cartoon strip, "Sally Forth," from the Chicago Sun-Times (2/11) has this exchange between an office manager & his subordinate. Subordinate: "Just because Aria and I ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-11-26 - From the 'Hooray-for-Bollywood' file, the Los Angeles Times (Nov. 19) reports that two of the biggest straight male hunks (and, yes, they are) in Indian cinema, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-11-12 - From the 'MYOB' file, the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 9) quotes Queen Latifah: 'I don't have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life. I don't ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-29 - From the 'Transgender-Is-the-New-Normal' file, The Atlantic (Nov. 2008 ) , in an article called 'A Boy's Life,' tells us of the new attitude of parents, teachers and doctors toward small children who clearly exhibit the belief ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-15 - From the 'MYOB' file, the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 9) quotes Queen Latifah: 'I don't have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life. I don't ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-08 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Media-Idol-as-Trojan-Horse' file, The New York Times (Sept. 19) , in a big ol' article, tells us that Oprah (by way of subtitles) has become the biggest thing for women on Saudi TV since ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-10-01 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the "Old-Dead-White-Man-But-He-Was-Gay" file, the Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 24) says a revival of the play adapted from Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is "enthralling" and "crystal-clear." The theme and plot of Dorian seem ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-24 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Of-Course-I-Can-Tell-You-What-Read' file: While Snopes has told us that the list of books circulating on the Internet that Sarah Palin ostensibly wants to ban is spurious, The New York Times (Sept. 14) did find that ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-17 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Yay-Gay' file, The New Yorker (Sept. 15) has a cartoon of some clothing store clerks, one of whom is saying, 'It's gotten so customers won't take my advice unless they think I'm gay.' From ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-10 - From the 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash' file, the Chicago Reader's (Sept. 4) 'Straight Dope' column talks about 'rampant buggery' in the Royal Navy in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In brief, it was there, ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-09-03 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Which-Madonna?' file, one really, really tried not to comment on Ricky Martin (as reported in the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 21) and his twins 'via a surrogate mother.' This is all very confusing. Were the ...
|
| | Media Watch 2008-08-27 Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times - From the 'Lest-You-Forget' file, the Chicago Tribune (Aug. 20 ) reports that in India one can get a cell-phone ringtone in which a professional singer chants, a cappella, the word 'condom' more than 50 times. Would ...
| |
|
|