A few nights ago attention getting, headline wanting Nancy Grace asked who pushed Whitney Houston underwater? Grace insinuated that Houston had been murdered. She has no facts to back up her contention, but this woman will say anything in search of ratings. This morning she appeared on Good Morning America and doubled down on her baseless statements. Grace is a dangerous person. She is not a journalist so she is not bound by a code of ethics. She is just a ratings hound that is in pursuit of the next story that will help her in her ultimate pursuit…justice…no ratings.
In our society people yearn for their 15 minutes of fame, and they will do and say almost anything to get it. I was not going to post on this one, but it makes me mad. A mother appeared on Good Morning America with her 8 year old daughter. The mother has her daughter involved in beauty pagents. That is their choice and that is not a problem. The problem arises when the mother admits that she is giving this child botox. She is literally giving the child the injections. So they got their 15 minutes of fame and now the authorities are looking into the matter. No 8 year old needs this procedure and it is gratifying to know that this woman’s vanity might lead to her punishment. It is sad that this mother thought what she was doing was positioning her daughter to win, but she actually only showcased the fact that she is a loser as a mother. Tell me what you think. http://video.foxnews.com/v/4693027/how-young-is-too-young-for-botox/
Tomorrow Tyler Perry’s latest movie For Colored Girls opens to the public. This movie marks a dramatic departure from the typical Perry film, but some things do stay the same. Perry tends to paint his men in two ways: bad or good. There is generally no middle ground. Today I read a very interesting perspective of Perry’s portrayal of men on The Grio website: http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/does-tyler-perry-have-a-problem-with-black-men.php
It’s been almost 20 years since the Clarence Thomas hearings. Why didn’t Ginny Thomas just let sleeping dogs lie. I remember watching the hearings and I was convinced that Anita Hill was telling the truth, but I also remember being embarrassed as she shared the details of her story, and I thought why would she subject herself to this scrutiny if this were not the truth. People still feel very passionate about the hearings. On Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said Thomas was unfairly victimized on “unfounded allegations” but whether you believe Hill or not one can not dismiss her testimony as unfounded. Some have said that Thomas was treated this way because he was a conservative, but I don’t buy that explanation. The reality is most sexual harassment is not done in the open where everyone can see it. It is generally done one on one and the two people involved are really the only two who actually know what transpired. So almost twenty years later and people are still bitterly divided, but why is this wound being re-opened and who made us revisit this incident? Ginny Thomas brought this issue back to the national conversation. She made a call on a Saturday at 7:30AM. So she really did not want to talk to Hill she wanted to leave a message, but what was her expectation? She had to know there would be no apology because Hill is comfortable with her own truth. Perhaps Thomas is trying to rewrite history and clear the stain from her husband’s legacy, but did she really believe Hill was ready to kiss and makeup? It was inappropriate for her to even approach Hill. What happened involved her husband and Hill and she should not have attempted to stir in it. She has made us start a new conversation about a painful period and just like 1991 some will believe him and some will believe her. We will never know what really happened and frankly we would have been happy not to have to discuss this incident again.
I grew up watching Oprah Winfrey. No I was not a child when Winfrey first came on the scene, but I was young just like she was and I saw her personal evolution over the years. She initially showed the salacious on her show, over the years her focus has changed as she has matured as a person and a host. Winfrey represents the proof that in this country it is possible to come from nothing and become a social phenomenon. Today I watched Matt Lauer interview Kitty Kelly who has just written an unauthorized biography on the talk show host. She has taken aim at Oprah and talked to disgruntled ex-employees and resentful relatives who have probably gotten all of the gravy possible off the Oprah gravy train, and are now angry because they can not longer hit the talk show host for more money. Kelly admits that Winfrey’s true confidantes would not talk to her so what can we expect from a one-sided look at Winfrey? We can expect to read rumors and innuendo the kinds of titillating tales that sell books. Kelly has a right to write a book on Oprah, and I reserve the right not to buy it. Oprah is not every woman, but she is advocate for women, and she has helped so many people over the years and that is not something she had to do. Oprah is no god she is human, and she has her flaws like we all do, but Kelly and her ilk seek to make a buck exploiting the flaws, and I simply am not buying.
American terrorist Joe Stack flew his plane into an IRS agency last week. He destroyed the building and took the life of Vietnam veteran, Vernon Hunter. Yesterday on Good Morning America his daughter Samatha Bell who now lives in Norway spoke regarding her father’s murderous act. She described his act as “inappropriate”, but she said that his act will hopefully bring attention to his plight and others in similar situations. She also excused the fact that he set fire to his home. This man was no hero he was a murderous terrorist who killed and put the lives of hundreds of people at risk. He is not the first or the last person to have problems with the IRS, but nothing justifies this vile act. He was not hero.
This morning it was announced that CNN Candy Crowley would be the new anchor of State of the Union. She succeeds John King who will be getting a new show at 7PM. When Tim Russert died in 2008 there was talk of Gwen Ifil filling his seat at Meet the Press, but that spot went to David Gregory. George Stephanopolis is now anchoring Good Morning America and his seat is now up for grabs. Maybe just maybe a person of color will be seriously considered. There are countless qualified candidates that could bring an interesting perspective to the conversation.
This morning the infamous Salahi’s appeared on the Today Show. Prior to their appearance the brother of Tareq in an inteview basically said they are media hounds and they yearn for publicity. Matt Lauer interviewed them and he pressed them for a simple answer that he did not get. The central question is did they receive an invitation? They said they are currently working with the Secret Service and the truth will come out. They said they have detailed emails that will exonerate them. Emails!!!? Call me crazy but this a formal dinner I hardly think a mass email went out to the invitees. I think an event of this nature would warrant a formal invitation and they did not get one. Let’s halt this farce they crashed plain and simple. We learned today that this same couple crashed the Congressional Black Caucus dinner in September. In that case their security team escorted them out of the affair, but they claim that too is a lie. The bottomline is we are still talking about them and they got their shot on the Today Show. So in their minds probably any press is good press so this is a good day.
Adam Lambert was banned from performing on Good Morning America after his performance on the American Music Awards. Instead of him GMA decided to have Chris Brown perform. After the outcry that Brown was a batterer GMA rescinded their invitation to Brown. Now Brown is slated to do a prime time interview with Robin Roberts on the network. Why will the network interview him, but not let him sing? Don’t get me wrong I am in no way condoning Brown’s behavior, but to me the network is being hypocritical. If you are willing to do a sit down with him then he should be able to do a song. Brown is a performer that is what he does for living and he is currently serving his punishment for the crime he committed. At what point will he be free to perform again?
In 2000 CBS launched the reality TV show Survivor. It was a simple premise 8 contestants lived on a desert island and each week one was voted off. The last one standing won a million dollars. Richard Hatch was the winner and he has since spent time in prison for tax evasion. Since that time we have seen literally hundreds of reality shows. There was a show on Fox that asked the question “Who wants to Marry a Millionaire?” Women vied for the affection of a complete stranger because he had a million dollars. We learned later that he did not have the money. We have seen a woman give birth to 8 children at one time when she already had six. Why would a single mom do this? She wanted a reality show. We saw a cute family show morph into a family tragedy, and that was Jon & Kate Plus 8. In the early years we saw a seemingly loving couple try to raise their kids with the help of supportive family and friends. We saw both Jon and Kate buy into their own hype and ultimately become shadows of their former selves. When TLC (the Learning Channel) saw the marriage start to unravel they decided to change the direction of reality. They wanted to launch Kate and 8 and just drop Jon from the show. This seemed to be a working solution for them, but Jon did the first paternal thing he has done in months. He said enough and decided his children would no longer participate in this perverted reality. We have seen Susan Boyle the brilliant singer plucked from obscurity meltdown under the constant pressure of the spotlight. Her story started out as a Cinderella story. Here was this plain Jane with an incredible set of pipes. We heard people make fun of her looks and marvel as if only beautiful people could sing. We witnessed her external makeover, but we have seen her recently reduced to sucking her thumb for comfort in public. She is a woman on the edge, but because she is hot she will continue to be pushed as long as it is profitable. We are left to ask why are these average people willing to do almost anything for their 15 minutes? In most cases it is not the money, but it is the fame. When you watch these shows you see they tend to select people with extreme personalities. The more extreme you are the more camera time you will get. On the first season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta one of the wives was DuShawn Snow wife of former NBA player Eric Snow. She was dropped from the show because she was too normal and normal does not bring in the big ratings. On the flip side Nene Leakes is loud, brash and obnoxious and she is recognized as the show’s star. Bravo knows how to sniff out a star, and that’s why it is hard to believe that Bravo is feigning ignorance in the White House Party Crashing Fiasco. Bravo assigned a camera crew to cover the Salahis the day of the State Dinner. Bravo said they were told by the couple that they had been invited and they acted on good faith. This is an inadequate excuse. Most parents do more vetting than this when their child visits a new friend. At any time did the officials at Bravo ask to see the invitation? Right now the spotlight is on the inadequacies of the Secret Service and the actions of the couple, but Bravo does not have clean hands in this and they need to also be called on the carpet. The reality is reality television is cheap to produce and networks make a lot of money off the misery of people. We are seeing people cheapen themselves for a few minutes in the spotlight. We saw the Heenes lie to police and say their son was missing. What was the motive? To get a reality show. Law enforcement devoted manpower and resources to search for a missing child who was actually at home. The Salahis are the latest to attempt to jump on this speeding train to fame, but finally it hit a glitch that might actually derail the fame train, but fear not maybe they can star as the Real Inmates of DC.
