September 21, 2009
QUOTE: "It's been a year of shocking and deeply saddening deaths. Michael Jackson. John Hughes. Jim Carroll. And the unexpressed thought. The silent sentiment, which survived from the dawn of consciousness to the birth of Twitter, will be missed. Among its contributions to civilization are the stiff upper lip, the novels of Henry James, and the song "Jesse's Girl." It had been languishing for years, hobbled by the blogosphere, Fox News, and in particular the recent spate of town hall meetings. But in the last several days, it received a number of severe blows from which it could not recover." —Salon contributor Mary Elizabeth Williams [salon.com, 9/14/09]
After being universally criticized for his interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at MTV's Video Music Awards, Kanye West apologized for his actions on the inaugural episode of Jay Leno's new prime-time talk show. "It was rude, period," West said. "I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve." [NBC, 9/14/09; AP, 9/15/09]
In the wake of Kanye West's actions as well as tennis star Serena Williams' profanity-laden response to a line judge after a tough call, experts are weighing in regarding the potential reasons for America's loss of civility. "It used to be that when children didn't get their way, they would throw a temper tantrum," said Mark DeMoss, co-founder of the Civility Project and owner of an Atlanta public relations firm. "Now we are seeing adults behaving the same way. That seems to be a troubling trend: If we don't get our way, we resort to crazy behavior." P.M. Forni, co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility Project and author of The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude, noted, "American society is among the most informal in the world, and often that informality crosses over into incivility. Now, you add the informality of the Internet to this culture, and all bets are off. It's an age of total disclosure and total expression, with very little concern for the feelings of others." [washingtontimes.com, 9/15/09; usatoday.com, 9/14/09]
QUOTE: "Frogs don't roll that way." —Kermit the Frog's response to Kanye West's latest antics [mtv.com, 9/18/09]
Since its creation in 1967, The Newlywed Game has been asking couples questions about married life. This season it will feature its first homosexual couple. George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, will appear with his partner, Brad Altman. "It seems like the show has always reflected the times in terms of marriages depicted," said the Game Show Network's programming chief, Kelly Goode." And this felt like the next logical step." [usatoday.com, 9/17/09]
QUOTE: "It's a sign of how far Ellen [DeGeneres] has come in the world, and how much she's changed it, that no one is referring to her as the token gay judge on American Idol, any more than Randy Jackson is referred to as the token black judge. To America, Ellen is funny first and smart second and lovable third and maybe gay fourth or fifth or sixth (just as Randy is annoying first and repetitive second and boring third or fourth)." —Salon television reviewer Heather Havrilesky [salon.com, 9/13/09]
After being sent back to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by a recent Supreme Court ruling, Fox continues to battle against the FCC's indecency laws. Among other things, Fox's legal counsel argued that the FCC's determination to regulate fleeting cursing words "interferes with the process of artistic and creative expression." [broadcastingcable.com, 9/16/09]
QUOTE: "The Fox broadcast network (and, by extension, the other networks) laid out their case before a federal court for the judicial removal of broadcast decency rules. In essence, the entertainment industry told the court that there should be no laws restricting broadcast indecency whatsoever! ... In their arguments before the Second Circuit, Fox said that the FCC's prohibitions against nudity and the f-word in prime time violate the First Amendment. The bottom line is clear: The entertainment industry is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to create for themselves an artificial 'right' to show nudity and use any kind of foul language any time they want, in any amount they want, without any penalty or restraint—and to push it into every living room in America." —Parents Television Council press release [parentstv.org]
When asked at the Toronto International Film Festival if his latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, might be his last, director Michael Moore said, "I'm saying it's a possibility, yeah." Moore hinted at frustration that his controversial films, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine and Sicko among them, failed to have the effect he apparently hoped for. "I've done this for 20 years. I started out by warning people about General Motors, and my whole career has been trying to say the emperor has no clothes here, and we better do something about it," Moore said. "I've been having to sort of knock my head against the wall here for 20 years saying these things. Two years ago, I tried to get the health-care debate going, and it did eventually, and now where are we? We may not even have it. What am I supposed to do at a certain point?" [huffingtonpost.com, 9/15/09]
What would you do if you found yourself unexpectedly trapped in a storm drain, but you had a cell phone? Call emergency services? Or just update your Facebook status? Two girls in Adelaide, Australia, recently concluded that the second option was the best plan of action. The 10- and 12-year-old girls logged into their Facebook pages to say that they were trapped, instead of dialing 000 (the Australian equivalent to the United States' 911). A friend saw the update and contacted authorities, who eventually rescued the girls. One firefighter involved in the rescue didn't have much good to say about the girls' lack of common sense. "We could have come to their rescue much faster than relying on someone else being online, then replying to them, then calling us," said Glenn Benham. "It's a worrying development." [telegraph.co.uk, 9/8/09; dailymail.co.uk, 9/8/09]
With Facebook's popularity booming among middle-aged users, the site is helping to foster a new term: retrosexual. The word refers to folks who broke off a relationship many moons ago—perhaps in high school, perhaps in college—and then reconnected on Facebook (or other social networking sites). "You get a thrill out of finding an old girlfriend just to see if she still likes you," says W. Keith Campbell, a psychology professor at the University of Georgia. "You're curious to see what she looks like, and it's easy to fantasize about alternative courses your life might have taken." [time.com, 9/21/09]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the popular social networking site now has 300 million users—double the number of users from just nine months ago. [usatoday.com, 9/15/09; latimes.com, 9/15/09 stats]
A new United Nations report estimates that 750,000 sexual predators are prowling the Internet at any given time. The report also noted that the number of sites worldwide devoted to child pornography continues to grow. [breitbart.com, 9/17/09 stats]
The winners list at the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards this year looked ... a lot like last year's list. For the second year in a row, AMC's Mad Men took top honors in the DRAMA SERIES category. Likewise, NBC's 30 Rock got the nod again for best COMEDY SERIES. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (on Comedy Central) racked up its seventh consecutive VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES win. Another show collecting its seventh trophy in as many years was CBS' Amazing Race in the REALITY-COMPETITION category. Repeat winners also included Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Glenn Close (FX's Damages) and Bryan Cranston (AMC's Breaking Bad). Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times noted that with the exception of 37-year-old Toni Collette, the winner in every other individual category was more than 40 years old. [AP, 9/20/09; usatoday.com, 9/20/09; latimes.com, 9/21/09 stats]