BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

June 30, 2004

Not fair

: Indian trains have wi-fi. New Jersey Transit doesn't.

The Daily Stern: The million-buck boobs

: The FCC is reportedly getting ready to fine Viacom more than $500k for showing Janet Jackson's one boob (values the pair at $1 million).

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Opinion

: I'm quoted in an editorial in the Ft. Wayne News Sentinal. (Haven't been a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner since 1981, but nevermind, I got quoted.)

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Kristof v. the neonuts

: Nicholas Kristof calls the new extremists of the left n their divisive, demonizing tactics -- stolen from the extremists of the right -- in a wonderful column today:

So is President Bush a liar?

Plenty of Americans think so. Bookshops are filled with titles about Mr. Bush like "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," "Big Lies," "Thieves in High Places" and "The Lies of George W. Bush."

A consensus is emerging on the left that Mr. Bush is fundamentally dishonest, perhaps even evil — a nut, yes, but mostly a liar and a schemer. That view is at the heart of Michael Moore's scathing new documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."

In the 1990's, nothing made conservatives look more petty and simple-minded than their demonization of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were even accused of spending their spare time killing Vince Foster and others. Mr. Clinton, in other words, left the right wing addled. Now Mr. Bush is doing the same to the left. For example, Mr. Moore hints that the real reason Mr. Bush invaded Afghanistan was to give his cronies a chance to profit by building an oil pipeline there.

"I'm just raising what I think is a legitimate question," Mr. Moore told me, a touch defensively, adding, "I'm just posing a question."

Right. And right-wing nuts were "just posing a question" about whether Mr. Clinton was a serial killer.

I'm against the "liar" label for two reasons. First, it further polarizes the political cesspool, and this polarization is making America increasingly difficult to govern. Second, insults and rage impede understanding.

Amen and I'm glad that one outcome of the Moore overdose will be a new call for moderation and centrism. This is a start. Kristof tips his hat to others:

Some Democrats, like Mr. Clinton and Senator Joseph Lieberman, have pushed back against the impulse to demonize Mr. Bush. I salute them, for there are so many legitimate criticisms we can (and should) make about this president that we don't need to get into kindergarten epithets.

But the rush to sling mud is gaining momentum, and "Fahrenheit 9/11" marks the polarization of yet another form of media. One medium after another has found it profitable to turn from information to entertainment, from nuance to table-thumping.

Yes. I stopped in the Barnes & Noble where President Clinton signed his book last week and I was shocked at the hate and divisiveness and extremism dripping from the shelves. Sure, moderation doesn't sell. But do we have to sell hate?

Kristof concludes:

Mr. Bush got us into a mess by overdosing on moral clarity and self-righteousness, and embracing conspiracy theories of like-minded zealots. How sad that many liberals now seem intent on making the same mistakes.

Take that, neonuts.

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Let the man speak

: The Wall Street Journal says the right is boiling over Fahrenheit and some unAmerican idiots actually are trying to get it pulled from theaters:

Some activists want to confront the movie's controversial assertions or even stop theaters from showing it; others, including the White House, are keeping a low profile to avoid hyping the film....

But some eaglets -- conservative groups operating without sanction from the White House -- have started a late-game campaign to remove Mr. Moore's movie from theaters and its advertisements from television sets. Move America Forward, a new conservative group based in Sacramento, Calif., and formed to support U.S. troops abroad, lobbied movie houses last week to ban the film and urged viewers to boycott it. Citizens United, a conservative grass-roots group based in Washington, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last week saying the movie's promotional ads, if they continue to run past the end of July, will violate campaign-finance laws.

Such moves may be playing right into Mr. Moore's hands -- and his pocketbook. "I want to thank all the right-wing organizations out there who tried to stop this movie either through harassment campaigns, going to the FEC to get our ads removed from television, or the things said on television," says the filmmaker. "They have only encouraged more people to go and see it."

Listen, I've made it clear that I think the film is a pile of poop. But I think it should be shown and I certainly think that any effort to stop it from being seen is not only stupid -- it does, indeed, turn Moore's paranoia into a self-fulfilling prophecy and a profitable one at that. But, more important, it is utterly unAmerican.

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Another Cannes winner!

: Heiko Hebig sent me this. He made it into a quiz on his site; I couldn't resist going straight to the punchline. This is an ad for the German tabloid Bild and, just like Michael Moore, it won an award in Cannes (this one the Cannes Lion ad contest; go to page 2, bottom right).

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More Moore

: Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post has a great roundup of critical, online, and blog reaction to Fahrenheit.

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Mayor Loon

: Correspondent TVsHenry sends me this quote from Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. I can't find the context and source or confirm it but with that caveat in mind.... The guy is apparently a lunatic, an idiot, and a traitor -- not to the President but to his fellow citizens, his own constituents, the real and potential targets and victims of terrorists' attacks. This is the mayor of a major American city who's supposed to save his residents from terrorists? He'd let the terrorists in and keep the President out. TVsHenry says he said:

"I remember after the attacks of September 11th, as the Mayor of this city, I was very, very worried about al Qaeda... and still am. But I'm even more worried about the actions and inactions of the Bush administration."

And I'm worried about you, Mayor.

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Extremism in the defense of extremism is a vice

: Oliver Willis responds to my post on extremism saying, rightly, that he has moderate opinions and he's tired of being called an extremist for them. Right. I add in his comments:

Oliver:
The people branding you extremists for having a legitimate political opinion and taking part in the necessary national debate on issues are the extremists themselves. That's what I'm trying to say: It's time we turn the tables (or mirrors) and brand the extremists as extremists when they oversimplify and label and, more than anything else, demonize. The evil person is, thank God (and take that literally) rare; the incompetent is not so rare. I don't agree with or like George Bush or plan to vote for him yet to watch him being labeled -- by "my side" -- as the devil himself is, at the very least, unhelpful to democracy and to "our side." So it's time we repudiate them. You and I agree about some things and disagree about some things but we respect each other and our opinions and we discuss them here and openly. That's the way a democracy is supposed to work; that's the only away it CAN work. When the extremists try to divide us and throw us into one corner or the other, we need to fight back and tell them we're not the extremists, they are.

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The vast blog conspiracy

: Strange column by Paul Carr in the Guardian launches off on a silly local Fox TV "report" that makes fun of blogs; we've seen that plenty, Lord knows, but this becomes a convenient launching pad to argue there's a vast right-wing conspiracy against blogs, thus positioning the column's world view: that blogs are the salvation of the left and that Air America is blog-brilliant. If he turned down the volume below 11, there might be a point here, but it's hard to hear it over the speaker distortion.

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The Daily Stern

: TAKE THAT, CLEAR CHANNEL: Stern is holding a press conference now to announce that he's adding nine markets, going back on in many of the markets where Clear Channel pulled him -- including swing-state Florida -- and adding new markets. He's still talking about going to satellite when his contract is up in 18 months and he's still saying that if large personal fines are signed into law by Bush, he will just play music and shut up. But in the meantime, Viacom has shown its support -- and balls -- adding stations for Stern.

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