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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Kuhner: AmericaÂ’s boobocracy |
| 2006-05-03 |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #22 WOW! This is a tour de force piece. I've seldom seen someone pull it all together like this in one article. For a long time I've said that the human race is several generations away from knowing just how to handle mass media in general, let alone the many-headed monster that the current infotainment industry has become. Now I'm beginning to wonder if we'll even survive it. How prescient does the movie "Network" seem now? |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-05-03 20:35 |
| #21 boobacracy sure seems to have worked on the supreme court. True enough, but Stevens and Ginsberg will croak soone enough, leaving room to put more like Alito and Roberts - judges, not legislators - on the bench. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2006-05-03 17:29 |
| #20 Most of hollywood stars now days have no talent, just good looks. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-05-03 17:02 |
| #19 RC, not to mention a healthy amount of humility. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-05-03 16:40 |
| #18 Phil, that used to be called the "Studio System". Oddly, it gave us stars with much more talent and staying power than the ones afflicting us today. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-05-03 16:20 |
| #17 This gives me a chance to air a recent conclusion of mine. Kerry Packer recently died the richest man in Australia. He was lauded in the media as understanding the synergies between different media and exploiting them. However, in my opinion he went further and did something that I consider breathtaking in its audacious simplicity. Fact: Celebrities sell media. Problem: Celebrities are an expensive pain in the butt. Solution: Manufacture your own celebrities. And that is what his media empire did. If a celebrity got too difficult or demanding or did something like DUI or groped a woman in the supermarket, they were dropped from his media and ceased to be a celebrity. Awesome. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-05-03 15:50 |
| #16 No need. Hollywood is bombing themselves quite regularly. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-05-03 12:40 |
| #15 A little too reactionary for me, sorry heh,heh. The fact that I enjoyed that just a little bit too much probably means you are right Seafarious. But still a fun bitchslapping. Trouble is when you start to enjoy it too often there will always be a payback. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-03 12:22 |
| #14 I have a solution. Declare war on Hollywood and nuke it. ;) |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-05-03 12:20 |
| #13 sm...lol!! |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-03 12:05 |
| #12 boobacracy sure seems to have worked on the supreme court. |
| Posted by: jim#6 2006-05-03 11:45 |
| #11 Why don't we shoot Alec Baldwin instead? |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2006-05-03 11:02 |
| #10 Do we shoot ourselves now or later? Geez, too much gloom and doom. We all know what the problems are, where are his SOLUTIONS! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-03 09:52 |
| #9 I love this article. Completely sums up everything wrong with the "elite". Like Saddam himself, they live in a fantasy world, full of "yes men", who have NO freakin' clue what the average American goes through on a day to day basis. And to that the fact that they tend to run in the same circles and only prop each other up and you begin to see why most of even the Blue States are only blue in urban areas (which themselves are losing population, as the religious, red-staters are starting to up their population counts). I do wonder if the long term effects of abortion, self-centeredness (no or very few kids), and self-adulation will eventually come back to haunt them. When something like 98 of the top 100 fastest-growing counties in the US went red, (and the liberals eventually decrease in population because of abortion & not wanting children), I see a brave new future for this country. Just gotta make sure that red-state children "stick to their roots" and that the Repubs grow a spine and do what's right, not what's politically expedient. By this I mean, cut spending, do something about illegal immigrants, let's release the hounds of our military on the Middle East (win this war), and fix Social Security/Medicare (as well as get judges on the bench who believe in the Constitution as it was written) and the rest will take care of itself. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-05-03 09:40 |
| #8 Nail meets hammer with full contact and full force. Bravo Zulu, Mr. Kuhner! |
| Posted by: mac 2006-05-03 09:18 |
| #7 A little too reactionary for me, sorry. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-05-03 09:02 |
| #6 A righteous bitchslapping. RTWT! fantastic! Thanks A5089! |
| Posted by: Ptah 2006-05-03 08:37 |
| #5 "Shut up and sing!" |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-05-03 08:24 |
| #4 A nation ruled by Pamela Anderson, Anna Nicole Smith, etc.? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-05-03 07:56 |
| #3 That's just about everything I ever wanted to say.Exellent!!!! |
| Posted by: ARMYGUY 2006-05-03 07:43 |
| #2 Pretty good analysis. I wonder if celebrities will continue to hold the sway in the future that they have had in the recent past. Not to long ago, and for most of history, actors were noted for what they were. But because of the dawning of the television and mass media, they benefited from limited distribution where if you and I wanted to go to the movies, they were the only girls in town. But as we enter a new era of unstoppable communications, I can't help but wonder if their heyday is over. Times are changing fast. I think it's tough to predict how anything will play out 20 years from now. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-03 07:23 |
| #1 I have bzen saying this ie "it is illegitimate and undemocratic that journalists and celebrities use their access to media for molding public opinion" since well before 9/11. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-05-03 06:47 |