Wednesday, June 15, 2005

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It's a strange day in the blogosphere....

Matthew Yglesias agrees with John Derbyshire about the fallout of Michael Jackson's trial.

I agree with Derbyshire about the fallout from the results of Terry Schiavo autopsy.

And Ana Marie Cox agrees with Derbyshire about homosexuality -- no, just kidding on that last one.

But Wonkette does factor into the general cultural weirdness of my day by contributing "Wonkette on Wonkette" for the University of Chicago Magazine -- in which I discovered the following:

[M]y first significant paycheck came from—believe it or not—Hustler, for a story of mine they published in Barely Legal magazine. I wrote it because a friend of mine was interested in getting actual women (as opposed to men pretending to write as women) writing for them. I wrote under the pseudonym Ana Marie Dix.

After all this, hearing that Katie Holmes will convert to Scientology really doesn't faze me that much (though if you are still fazed, click here).

posted by Dan on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM




Comments:

I agree with Derb as well. They must not have thought much of the merits of their argument since they spent so much time arguing that Terry would start walking around at any moment.

posted by: Horatio on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



Unrhetorical question

Why is the MJ trial important? WHat on earth does MJ represent other than good music? If the CEO of Bertlesmen AG was caught in the same kind of trouble no one would care.

(What is Bertlesmen? See, my point exactly. They are a German company that owns most of the English language printed in books )

posted by: exclab on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



Why is the MJ trial important? WHat on earth does MJ represent other than good music?

I would disagree with the "good music" part - most pop music, including his, is boring fluff.

What MJ represents is the segment of American society that is too easily drawn into personality cults. Admiring someone is one thing, unquestioning fanaticism is another. I was aghast at the number of talk show callers who are absolutely certain that MJ is not a pedophile. EVEN THE JURORS thought he was a pedophile, but did not believe that the prosecution had sufficient evidence in this case.

MJ has a significant fan base that will note his sleeping with dozens or hundreds of children and disregard any possibility that just maybe he is engaging in any sexual misconduct. Would anybody believe a middle-aged guy who says that his sleeping with dozens of 10-year-old girls is innocent?

posted by: Alan K. Henderson on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



I don't believe the segment of Americans drawn into MJ's fan club is terribly huge. More likely, television 'news' personalities were drawn into the story because of cheap, easy news. Most people were forced to watch the saga by default. When the verdict was read, only PBS and niche channels (Cartoon Network, Golf Channel, etc.) kept to their original programming schedule.

posted by: EG on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



The Michael Jackson trial got a lot of coverage because everyone between the ages of 25 and 50 grew up listening to (or at least exposed to) his music. So while virtually nobody has a substantial degree of interest in Michael Jackson, virtually everybody has *some* degree of interest in him.

The latest Star Wars film got a lot of press coverage for a similar reason -- the number of harcore Star Wars fans is reasonably small, but the number of people who watched the films as kids is probably in excess of a hundred million.

posted by: Dan on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



Yeah, plus Natalie Portman was in it.

posted by: fling93 on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



I've chilled on Portman personally, i swear her terrible acting has turned me off, which i understand is strange especially considering such thespian demigods as Tara Reid and Shannon Elizabeth still do it for me. Also, Katie Holmes looks terrible in the new Batman. Something about her face is not right, she's scarier their than the Scarecrow. She looks like she's melting or something.

posted by: Mark Buehner on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



Still, I'd e-meter her.

posted by: spongeworthy on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



Am I the only one who just doesn't get the fascination with Wonkette? Her blog is basically unreadable. Yet somehow she's always getting tapped for all sorts of conferences and she's the go-to person for the media whenever they need a representative of the blog world.

Is it because she's a young woman and sort of cute? Is it the anal sex jokes? Or does Nick Denton just have that much stroke with the media?

I'm just baffled.

posted by: DRB on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



Mark Buehner: I've chilled on Portman personally

Ooh, less competition. Yay!

posted by: fling93 on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]



virtually everybody has *some* degree of interest in [MJ]
This is a true statement, but only because zero is also a "degree of interest".
posted by: Kirk Parker on 06.15.05 at 03:32 PM [permalink]






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