Ketchup

[poliphilo]

I'm slowly catching up on the convention. The BBC are showing looped highlights on their Parliamentary Channel.

Yesterday I watched Teresa Heinz Kerry. I'm sorry, but it's hard not to hear that as Heinz Ketchup- especially since the name is displayed on screen with the Heinz bit- the famous logo- dead centre.

And isn't there something slightly creepy about still dragging your dead husband's name around with you after remarriage?

A woman defined by the men in her life- the ones she's slept with, the ones she's given birth to- those wholesome, handsome sons.

And if she says anything off her own bat she's "opinionated". I liked her defence of herself on that charge, carrying the attack to the enemy. But isn't the whole enterprise, the parading of oneself as mother and sexual partner, just a little demeaning?

Look at me; See what a healthy womb I've got!

Comments

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

are you aware of the cookie bake-off?

when clinton was running in 1992, hilary said something in an interview to the effect of "well i suppose i could stay home all day and bake cookies, but that's just not me" and there was a huge uproar, because how dare she insult all the housewives and mothers out there! god forbid a woman should have aspirations beyond her home. so ladies' home journal held a cookie bake-off in which hilary clinton and barbara bush each submitted a recipe to the magazine and readers voted on it. hilary won. and the magazine has done it for every election since, and the winner of the cookie bake-off always goes on to become the first lady.

the point being, for all our talk about equal rights and opportunities for women, "motheriness" is all that voters look for in a potential first lady. i think teresa is well aware of this, and not happy about it, but she's gonna do what she has to, to help kerry win.

i really hate the media. i had to cut all those tapes of her telling the reporter to "shove it", knowing exactly how they were going to be used. it's so hypocritical, considering that dick cheney can swear at a senator on the senate floor and his approval rating goes up. if teresa heinz kerry had been a man, people would be applauding her for standing up to nuisance reporters.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I knew there were problems with the cookie remark, I didn't know that it had led to a cookie baking competition.

How ridiculous. But I'm glad that Hillary won!

I find what's happening with your media really scary. At least there's the Net to provide balance.

By the way, what did the reporter say to get Teresa riled?

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure, exactly-- it was a dispute about whether he misquoted or misrepresented things she said. we didn't actually report on the details or cause of the incident, just the fact that she told a reporter to shove it.

i think she's pretty cool overall, because she does stuff like that. apparently kerry's handlers have stopped trying to script her, because she never sticks to their plans. when the bush campaign started talking about her money, she noted how they never had a problem with the money when her husband (a republican) was alive, in fact they were quite happy to use it then. she's also the first potential first lady to submit a non-chocolate-chip cookie recipe.

unfortunately none of this is going to help kerry win, and more's the shame for that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So only half the story is reported. The British media were no better. We got the "Shove it" but no account of the provocation.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

from the New York Times:

On the other hand, everyone knows that Teresa Heinz Kerry told someone to "shove it," though even there, the context was missing. Except for a brief reference on MSNBC, none of the transcripts I've read mention that the target of her ire works for Richard Mellon Scaife, a billionaire who financed smear campaigns against the Clintons - including accusations of murder. (CNN did mention Mr. Scaife on its Web site, but described him only as a donor to "conservative causes.") And viewers learned nothing about Mr. Scaife's long vendetta against Mrs. Heinz Kerry herself.

it takes an op-ed column to tell the whole truth about the exchange. sad, huh? actually the whole piece is worth reading, as it's about exactly this issue of trivialization in the media.
Triumph of the Trivial

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

also, jon stewart of the daily show was interviewed by ted koppel for nightline the night before last, and had some really good observations about what's wrong with the media today, how they have the authority to call people out on their bullshit (which wouldn't be bias, it would be a simple matter of revealing how statistics are derived, or who's funding what, or going back to video archives and saying "yes senator, you said that and we have footage of it"), but they never do, and that's why people are frustrated with the news outlets. they don't provide analysis, or even a look at the bigger picture.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank God for the BBC- with its culture of taking the politicians to task.

But it's a dangerous game. A number of BBC personnel (including the Director General) lost their jobs over a radio report that went a little further than the ascertainable facts warranted in accusing Blair and his gang of lying over WMDs.

"The proce of liberty is eternal vigilance."