Friday, April 13, 2007
Have you heard? Someone on the radio said something stupid.
No doubt this story has proved inescapable to you over the past few days if you seek out any kind of respectable news source. Though it seemed unthinkable that any story could displace the revelation of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter’s lineage, the Don Imus story has done just that. CNN, apparently bored already with that story and the Department of Justice firings scandal, has wrapped itself in the Imus story with astonishing vigor.
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Media outlets are delightfully complacent in the development, gladly pushing aside war and economic news to report on the parade of apologies the tarnished celebrity must stage to curry favor with the offended groups.
Imus is not the first person in radio history to say something outrageous, and he will not be the last. Talk radio, as a forum, lends itself to unfortunate statements; endless rambling through long stretches of airtime can often produce regrettable remarks. And yes, we can all acknowledge the utterly reprehensible nature of what Imus said about the Rutgers basketball team. But this story is symptomatic of a larger trend that may prove far more disturbing: the careful manufacturing of outrage.
Social cause-based groups have in the last few years perfected the art of constructing indignation. It has become a well-honed process: wait for an offensive statement from the troubled celebrity du jour, whip your constituents into a frenzy by calling this statement indicative of a larger societal ill, and rely on the media to report on the “widening calls” for action. Professional instigators, Al Sharpton chief among them (perhaps to distract from the now-evident error of his statements on the Duke lacrosse case), succeed by knowing exactly which emotional pitch to use with their supporters.
Media outlets are delightfully complacent in the development, gladly pushing aside war and economic news to report on the parade of apologies the tarnished celebrity must stage to curry favor with the offended groups. The outlets themselves become a bizarre echo chamber — if two stations do stories on the “scandal,” ten other stations can then breathlessly discuss the “increasing media attention,” perpetuating the story even further.
And for what? CNN may lament with affected empathy the supposed theft of the team’s moment, but it gleefully pushes the story hour after hour, barely masking its joy at such a salacious tale. One day soon, Imus will recede into the night as the wizened curmudgeon he has become, and the media outlets will wait, reporting dourly and begrudgingly on actual news, until the next pseudo-scandal comes along. Then the beast of manufactured outrage and formulaic anger will again arise, and the discouraging cycle will begin anew.
— McKay Stangler for the editorial board
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Comments
Stangler: Manufactured outrage dooms radio
No, that's not the suggestion at all. The point of the Sharpton Duke involvement was that he and others were awfully quick to rush down to Durham to stage rallies to feed the racial frenzy, but are awfully slow now to apologize or admit error. Sharpton sure seemed eager to overlook the utter lack of evidence in the case or the obvious flaws in the charges, but still hurried to proclaim the obvious innocence of the black accuser and obvious guilt of the white suspects. If an equally idiotic man like Rush Limbaugh had done the exact opposite, he might have been pilloried. Sharpton and Limbaugh are cut from the same cloth: both serve to stir up the worst feelings and traits in their extreme constituencies, and both are loath to admit error, lest it ruin their standing the next time they have to create a controversy.
Yes, muckrakers like Sharpton can serve a very useful purpose as watchdogs. But we've seen this too many times from men like Sharpton and Limbaugh. To them, the world is black and white (not in a racial sense, but in terms of dichotomous right/wrong ideals), an attitude that never helps pacify these situations.
Not all the outcry is manufactured outrage. The team has a legitmate reason to be upset. And yes, his comments were ridiculously racist and sexist. But the issue has been overtaken by men like Sharpton, who stage these miniprotests and ambush interviews because of self-serving interests, not because they're trying to stymie the conflict.
I would come right out and say that if that was what I actually thought. His comments were the latest in what appears to be a pattern of racially offensive comments. But there are also a million other idiots out there saying similar stuff-- many of them on talk radio. Hannity and Savage have said far worse things on the radio; they just cloak their racial statements in comments about "the poor" and "immigrants," the same way '80s politicians used to subtly blame problems on "welfare queens."
Yes, it was time for Imus to go, but let's at least acknowledge that there exists a class of professional "offendees" whose job is to merely be shocked, SHOCKED! by things in society. It's not just about race: James Dobson is another principal offender. Look at how many FCC complaints came from just one Focus on the Family form email (it's often 90 to 100% of all complaints received about an "indecent" episode). That's a perfect example of manufactured outrage.
Imus is an idiot. But so are many of the blowhards who immediately called for his head.
Stangler: Manufactured outrage dooms radio
http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html
Stangler: Manufactured outrage dooms radio
Imus being gone in no way pacifies the situation. It just ends this little spat.
The situation is racism in America, not just a few very poor words on the part of Don Imus. Sharpton gets his name in the paper. It's what he's good at. I agree these issues need to be talked about, but did we really need Al Sharpton to bring it to light. Couldn't the Rutgers team have lead the protest on their own. If it was so outrageous it didn't need a figurehead. The issue would have fanned its own flame.
Sharpton is an instigator. This issue is ongoing. And although Imus is gone, it doesn't mean that everything is fine.
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