AN AMERICAN ABROAD
Celebrity seduction: Cable media versus 'political' artists

By D.A. Blyler | RAW STORY COLUMNIST

I was fortunate to live two years in the Czech Republic while on the faculty of the University of West Bohemia. Having shed the yoke of communism without firing a single shot, the country became an exhilarating place, filled with lively intellects, silky brews, and spirited women.

Every time I hear a shrill or demeaning attack on politically active artists such as actor Sean Penn, songwriter Bruce Springsteen, director Michael Moore, or aging literary lion Norman Mailer, I can’t help but wince at how different the United States is from that small but proud Slavic country. In a recent installment of the media analysis program NewsWatch, the best and only ‘fair and balanced’ show on the Fox News Channel, the panel briefly discussed the issue of political activism among ‘celebrities.’ In summary, Jane Hall, an assistant Communications professor at American University, whinged about how she should have studied acting in college instead of journalism; USC professor and cultural historian Neal Gabler joked that he wouldn’t take up acting if they stayed off his turf, while Newsday columnist Jim Pinkerton snickered that he would like to meet Springsteen’s ghostwriter. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas also tried his hand at being funny but, as usual, I’ve already forgotten what he said.

What every commentator purposely failed to mention was that each of the ‘celebrities’ they were analyzing were first and foremost critically acclaimed artists; and that artists have had a long and noble history in the political discourse of civilized nations, tracing back to ancient Greece; and that the real issue at hand was whether artists in the United States, in the year 2004, should be afforded the same respect.

Why did the NewsWatch panel stoop to joke telling over analysis? While it’s easy to dismiss Pinkerton’s comments as sour grapes over Springsteen’s eloquent New York Times op-ed, the cavalier attitude exhibited by the usually thoughtful and independent minded Hall and Gabler is revealing. Until the advent of 24 hour cable news, television granted few opportunities to such commentators, their live audience limited to classrooms of dozing university students. The acquisition of an audience-at-large meant simply reeling in the readers of newspaper op-ed pages and professional journals.

But these days, who really has time to read anymore? Then cable news descended like deus ex machina to rescue them from print obscurity, suddenly transforming the essayists into TV stars, relatively speaking. And no one was more surprised than they. For who would have thought that all those years spent reading and writing dry prose would have paid off in bright lights and big city. Fame is a delicious apple for academics and journalists, as well as the common man. And so we shouldn’t be surprised that Pinkerton and company aren’t about to relinquish theirs without a fight.

Take this recent exchange between the increasingly thin skinned ‘Factor’ host Bill O’Reilly and movie star Alec Baldwin. During O’Reilly’s interview the actor posed the question as to why it was more offensive for a man such as him to speak his mind than a CEO of a corporation who disperses millions of dollars in political lobbying. Fox’s O’Reilly shot back that ‘the folks’ are offended because Baldwin’s crowd has access to the media, while the folks don’t, and they don’t like it. What O’Reilly should have said was: “We’re offended, Alec, because you’re stealing our limelight, you’re a bigger celebrity than we are, and we don’t like it.”

D.A. Blyler is the author of the novel Steffi’s Club. His essays have appeared at Salon.com, The Korean Herald, Bangkok’s The Nation, and other international and online publications. A lecturer at Rajabhat University Rajanagarindra, he makes his home in Thailand. His latest novel can be purchased at Amazon.com.