July 24, 2010
updated
Witness the power of choosing to look for racial divide.
CNN is running an ad in which they use Ms Sherrod to promote three of their white male anchors (John Roberts, John King, Anderson Cooper) and their dedication to truth! facts! and journalism!
No mention of Kiran Chetry, who sat next to John Roberts, no mention of Tony Harris, who did the most pointed and honest interview of Ms Sherrod, and no mention of Rick Sanchez who perhaps showed the most restraint of anyone in MSM.
Though there’s a good reason Mr Harris’ interview wasn’t included. He had the misfortune to have to trust CNN factcheckers and Ms Sherrod on LIVE and referred to Mrs Spooner as a widow. (Much to the later delight of Mr Spooner.)
CNN commercial
Anderson Cooper: THE TRUTH MATTERS
Picture of Ms Sherrod: WHEN A WOMAN WAS UNJUSTLY ACCUSED…
John Roberts video clip
…CNN’s JOURNALISM MADE THE DIFFERENCE
John King – pointing at Mr Breitbart: “You say context is everything – we believe facts are important too.”
Anderson Cooper: THE TRUTH MATTERS
CNN: THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN NEWS
—
Like a comic book. Damsel in distress gets falsely accused by evil villain and Clark Kent comes to the rescue. It’s just a matter of what colors to use.
Which brings up a good point.
NY Times’ Bob Herbert was on Morning Joe back in 2008 to discuss Sen McCain’s “Celeb’” ad (Paris Hiton, Britney Spears, barry on Germany).
Mr Herbert’s interpretation was literal and sexual: loose white girls who don’t wear underwear, a black man, phallic symbols. Only the “phallic symbols” had a reason to be there and were not the phallic symbols Mr Herbert thought he saw. (Don’t know if he was a little off on his landmarks or if his mind tricked him.)
The Morning Joe white folks (Geist, Scarborough) interpreted the ad less literally - a whole lotta press for a celebrity on the world stage who really hasn’t done anything. The issue of phallic symbols never came up because it was in it’s proper geographical contex.
Doesn’t mean they weren’t manipulated to look more phallic.
Victory Column in Tiergarten Park, Berlin
And although I understand Mr Herbert’s reference, the thought of either woman’s parts, clad or unclad, never even occurred to me. I tend to think of women – no matter who they are or what they do – as more than a collection of parts.
Bottomline. Mr Herbert couldn’t be swayed from his position and he couldn’t sway Willie/Joe from theirs. They watched the same ad but interpreted it from different places. But the shared experience demonstrated in a very concrete way how folks who know each other and who have discussed all sorts of issues, including race, can look at the same exact thing and experience it in a fundamentally different way that may seem irrational to the other.
