July 26, 2005
Swimming with the Snarks
I find myself today, looking at the blogosphere and feeling sick and angry.
For instance, surf over to this pop culture blog, Defamer, and you'll find yesterday’s Ricky Martin news blip (that I covered here) resulted in this entry:
Here’s the headline: “Ricky Martin Seeks End to Arab Stereotypes.” Our only explanation is that many Arabs find themselves in the position of being stereotyped as gay-seeming Latin singers; in that case, they couldn’t have a better advocate. Also: Congratulations to Martin for continuing to be alive. We were sure he’d died quietly a year and a half ago.Well, actually, Defamer, a year and a half ago, Ricky decided to take some time off after selling 55 million albums (talk about irrelevant) to lend his celebrity to projects focused on keeping children from being sold into child prostitution.
If you doubt me, go ask Oprah (she herself, being so irrelevant these days).
I’m quite surprised to find myself getting fired up over Ricky Martin, but I’m prone to get a little fired up by folks who discount racism and prejudice with flippant one-liners. I have three pet peeves: inaction, inaccuracy and ignorance.
But I’m not here to attack Defamer, or it’s editor Mark Lisanti, for doing what he does, and quite well sometimes: which is provide gossip and commentary on popular culture. But I am a little put off by flippancy in reporting, which is something I am guilty of doing myself, from time to time.
The way I see it, blogs and bloggers are facing uncertain times. Political bloggers are facing regulation from the FEC. Folks are losing their jobs for blogging. Rupert Murdoch has purchased MySpace. When News Corp. grabs hold of something, it’s time to get nervous. Especially when you’re working and participating in a community of ideas and free expression.
If we do, indeed, fashion ourselves as independent journalists and/or satirists, then playa-hating, off-the-cuff, mean-spirited and inaccurate statements don’t reflect well on our ability to accurately disseminate news or provide cultural commentary.
Did I just say that? Yes. I did.
If blogging is ever to be viewed as a worthwhile effort and worthy of asking people to spend their time with us, we need to be more than nasty, ill-informed, smart-asses.
It diminishes us and our medium.
As a pop culture junkie who is prone to actually thinking about what he writes and is prone to do some research before he puts those thoughts to screen, I thought it would be nice to pull together a small reading list for folks who seem obsessed with judging a book only by its cover, especially if you seem to be a mean-spirited white man living in Los Angeles. It also will come in handy for those whose only measure of success is back to back mentions on Access Hollywood.
In the spirit of writers who preferred quality to quantity, in the spirit of telling a story that needed to be told, in the spirit of thinking about the state of our current culture, I submit a trio of my favorite books for your pop culture consideration:
-- To Kill a Mockingbird
-- Gone With the Wind
-- The Catcher in the Rye
Sometimes, creative folks can change the world with just one contribution – one act of courage – one true and honest thing.
And sometimes, that’s enough.
I for one, will endeavor to swim less with the snarks from here on out.
There’s other (and better) company that I would like to keep.
