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Sports
May 4, 2006
Witnessing LeBron
We are all witnesses. So says Nike, and so say the cliché-ridden sportswriters who can't stop plugging the LeBron James ad campaign. Sure, it's a slightly clever phrase that is especially good fodder for ridicule when James's teammates stand around gawking at the star's moves, but does it really merit so many prominent mentions in the media?
Media
April 26, 2006
Bogus Gasoline Trend Spotting
Over at Slate, Jacob Weisberg writes that rising gas prices make politicians act irrationally. But people in government aren't the only ones that throw reason to the wind when faced with this overhyped phenomenon. Two recent articles show that some in the media are just as silly.
Media
April 24, 2006
Eating Shoes at The New Yorker
Werner Herzog is a reckless, immature, narcissistic, lying jerk with a death wish. All of that emerges in Daniel Zalewski's recent New Yorker profile (sadly, not yet online), but somehow, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the acclaimed director emerges as a loveable and misunderstood rogue. The article follows Herzog as he navigates the toxic atmosphere he has created on the set of his newest film, Rescue Dawn. Among his many other self-created challenges, the New Yorker explains, Herzog must deal with a dimwitted production company principal who thinks that The Rundown represents the apex of fine cinematography.
Media
April 21, 2006
Does Shooting Dogs Lie?
Early this week, a Reuters published an article that states that many Rwandans are unhappy with the portrayal in recent movies of the genocide that took place in their country 12 years ago. In the article, survivors fault the films Sometimes in April and Hotel Rwanda for omitting important details about the origins of the tragedy and overstating the role of particular individuals. But it is in the criticism of a new movie yet to be released in the United States that the most damning claim is made.
Media
April 11, 2006
Tiger's Verbal Bogey
Tiger Woods's comment that he played like a "spaz"— a derisive word derived from the condition of being "spastic"—after collapsing in the final round of the Masters tournament created a furor in the UK; but just a yawn, and even some cover-ups, stateside. Since the story brings together two of Gelf's favorite recurring themes—international perspectives on current events, and the media's treatment of potentially profane or offensive language—we're compelled to take a closer look.
Media
April 10, 2006
Quite Frankly a Cliché
Blame ESPN shouter Stephen A. Smith; or pin it on our age of ubiquitous dissembling, when a mere "frankly" doesn't cut it; or say Gelf is just late to notice it, but quite frankly, "quite frankly" is everywhere. As clichéd phrases go, it's especially annoying and meaningless. Here are some recent instances:
Media
April 5, 2006
Odd Timing
Humanity's less than a century old, according to New York Times tech columnist David Pogue. He blogged Tuesday morning: "Late tonight—specifically, 123 seconds after 1:00 a.m.—the time and date, for the first time in all of humanity, will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. And it will never happen again." But as a reader later pointed out to Pogue, '06 comes up every century. Maybe he knows something about global warming that the rest of us don't.
Full article » | by Jody Shenn
Media
April 3, 2006
Spring-Break Trendwatching
Spring break has arrived! It's time for the beach, beer, and bulimia! Sex, Mexico, and anorexia! Wait, what? Lumping eating disorders in with the much-maligned annual migration ritual of college students is trite and misleading? Tell that to the New York Times.
Media
April 3, 2006
NYT on the Bubble
Now that the NCAA tournament is finishing up, some coaches are hoping to add even more teams to the field next year. Syracuse's Jim Boeheim—perhaps sensing the dark post-G-Mac days awaiting his program—made his case for expanding the bubble to the Associated Press last Thursday. If that sort of expansion strikes you as greedy and unnecessary, though, consider what the New York Times did with the story itself.
Media
March 26, 2006
'Love' Isn't Fit to Print
South Park retaliated at a former star by skewering his belief in Scientology—and a New York Times reporter modestly declined to quote from the episode. The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were lashing out at Isaac Hayes, the voice of the character Chef, who walked out on his contract because he was angry at Parker and Stone for creating an episode that mocked Scientology. In this season's premiere, Parker and Stone didn't mention Scientology, but instead made Chef a member of the Super Adventure Club, "a ring of globe-trotting, mind-controlling pedophiles," Alessandra Stanley writes in the New York Times. "After the boys snap Chef out of his trance (he yells disjointed phrases too obscene to print here), his former captors hunt him down and he appears to die a gruesome death." Among those disjointed phrases—strung together from voice clips from prior episodes—that were apparently too obscene to print here (according to spscriptorium): "Well, how about I meet you boys after work and we make love?" How is that worse than "mind-controlling pedophiles"?
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