Rebutting a boil on the ass of American media. Listen. The riff on MSNBC execs signing paychecks for the “tap dancing” boil is rich.
and
In defense of Roseanne. This piece nails everything that Roseanne did first and right. I’ll add one thing it misses. Long before Will and Grace and the Logo Network, Roseanne had fully orbed, flesh and blood gay characters. Roseanne Conner’s boss, played by Martin Mull, was not only openly gay, one episode centered around his marriage to his partner. In 1994! The long running character Nancy came out in another episode, kissing her girlfriend. ABC almost refused to air it. Roseanne Barr told ABC she’d ditch, taking her #1 show to another network. ABC blinked. In another episode a burly plumber fixing her sink mentions that he’s in a long term committed relationship, names him, and we move on. Please remember that at the time if gay people existed on TV they were always stereotypes or tragic. Roseanne’s gay community was populated by working class people struggling to make a life in the early 90s recession…just like everyone else in her fictitious Illinois town.
Young people don’t realize how different television was back in the day.Lucy and Desi had to sleep in separate beds. They didn’t want to show Lucy pregnant. Kirk and Uhura shared the first onscreen interracial kiss. Lesbians and gays didn’t exist, although several supposedly hetero guys were flaming stereotypes. Single women could be sexy looking but had to be virginal in behavior.
Now we’ve reached the point where a character’s sexual behavior and orientation are just bits of trivia, not major plot devices.
Landford Illinois.
No d.
Corrected!! Thanks D.E.
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/08/16/msnbcs-toure-romney-engaging-in-the-niggerization-of-obama-by-calling-him-angry/
The above piece goes on to report that the Romney campaign is speaking with MSNBC execs…
Off topic, but HAD to share this!
They even left out some of his doozies.
Just wondering how Team Obama will respond to Gov. Wilder’s remarks here:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2012/08/16/vp-bidens-comments-too-divisive
Oh, I found their response today:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2012/08/17/douglas-wilder-blasts-bidens-chains-remarks
One update to the sidebar on Barr (the link crashed my computer and the ad pop-up prevents me from reading it all). While she ran at least in Cal for the Green primary, she’s been nominated in LA this month by the Peace + Freedom Party with Cindy Sheehan as he running mate. (So, those vowing to vote for a woman over a man now have more choices than ever!) And those of us who will (continue, in my case) vote for neither major party candidate out of principle if not pragmatism will have more options too. If we wait until “25%” of our fellow citizens to vote 3P, yet we decry the lack of alternatives to the corporatocracy, we’ll never “move on” “forward.” I vote for my conscience, and having interesting candidates for both Greens and PF is fun. I wish Rocky Anderson’s “Justice Party” can qualify for state ballots, but Cal’s requirements are steep–only 7 parties ever made it since 1953; a party needs to sustain a show from 103k registered voters.