Entries Tagged 'Blogs' ↓

“I give you my journalistic integrity.”: David Gregory, NBC News

Salon.com‘s Glenn Greenwald recently covered a confession by Oregon sports columnist Dwight Jaynes, who writes for The Portland Tribune.

In the piece, Greenwald talks about a June 5th column by Jaynes, in which he revealed the way

bloggers “led [him] to alter [his] approach to the way [he] do[es] [his] job as a columnist, pushing [him] away from a philosophy [he] held dear for decades in this business.”

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You might think that a student with a double major in Geography and Russian & Slavic Studies—one matriculating in about a year, before heading to grad school—might have more to do at 4 a.m. than create a geographic outline of the places rapper Ludacris likes to pick up chicks, based on his 2001 Word of Mouf single w/ Nate Dogg, “Area Codes,” above. (Click on the map to enlarge it, then again to see it at maximum size.)

But, if you do think that, you neither know the contradictions of higher ed nor the peccadilloes of Stefanie Gray. (You also haven’t been to the incredible Strange Maps blog, where I first saw this.)

There, the CUNY Hunter College undergrad, right, notes, “I’m a female and a feminist. I dislike the usage of the word ‘ho’. However, as a geography major, I find this song hilarious, and had to map it.”

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The sole issue more amazing than the blatancy of VOGUE’s having mined crude racist imagery for their April 2008 LeBron James/Giselle Bündchen cover has been the whiteout of surrounding media on the issue.

Here, in New York, neither The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The New York Sun, or The Village Voice have cracked a word on this subject, online or off. Newsday wrote something, before the direct pairing of the cover and H.R. Hopps’s 1917 Destroy This Mad Brute—Enlist poster, right, was widely known. As for television, local and network, zero.

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Everything but the helmet: LeBron James meets his doppelganger

“Vogue spokesman Patrick O’Connell said the magazine ‘sought to celebrate two superstars at the top of their game’ for the magazine’s annual issue devoted to size and shape.

“‘We think Lebron James and Gisele Bundchen look beautiful together and we are honoured to have them on the cover,’ he said.”

“But magazine analyst Samir Husni believes the photo was deliberately provocative, adding that it ‘screams King Kong.” Considering Vogue’s influential history, he said, covers are not something that the magazine does in a rush.

“‘So when you have a cover that reminds people of King Kong and brings those stereotypes to the front, Black man wanting white woman, it’s not innocent,’ he said.”

—“Vogue cover starring LeBron James is called racially insensitive by some,” Megan Scott, The Associated Press

“Lying,” photographer Annie Leibovitz’s late lover, Susan Sontag, famously said in an essay, “is an elementary means of self-defense.”

Perhaps knowing this is why both Leibovitz, right, creator of VOGUE’s controversial April 2008 cover photo, above right, and Anna Wintour, VOGUE editor-in-chief, below, both 58, have remained absolutely mute since accusations began to fly, over a week ago, that their coy image—featuring Cleveland Cavaliers point forward LeBron James, 23, and supermodel Gisele Bündchen, 27—was a less-than-subtle piece of racist indoctrination.

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The news this week that Barack Obama is distantly related to, among others, Brad Pitt, and that Hillary Clinton is, albeit at a distance, connected by family to Angelina Jolie, led to Pretty On the Outside blog fashioning these grotesque morphs of the Democratic candidates with their respective kinfolk.

Honored to be blogrolled by Canned Thinking, though I’m guessing that doing it twice was just a mistake. : ) Self-described “aspiring writer” Aaron Matthews writes it, and he seems to possess least two qualities that endear anyone to me: Clearly diverse interests and a love of interviews. Both are on display in his Q&A with comedienne Chelsea Perretti, right, who, with her brother Jonah, created the Black People Love Us! web site a couple of years ago. (I couldn’t stand the site, which seemed self-congratulating in an unintended, white way, but I’ll look out for her stand-up.)

Mucho appreciation to Giles Li, who did a thoughtful write-up on my “No, Seriously: I’d Much Rather Listen to Obama Girl” riff about Will.I.Am’s Obamaffectionate “Yes We Can.” I’d not heard of Mr. Li’s work previously, but a look at his bio shows a dedication to arts education that I find inspiring and believe to be badly needed.

Also, thanks to FOBBDeep: Fear of a Brown Blogger‘s Ninoy Brown for building on the same subject matter—”We Are The Ones,” Will.I.Am’s flaccid follow-up to “Yes We Can”—while mentioning me and the piece. Whether it be covering the work of music video director Rik Cordero, the apparent temporary saving of 1520 Sedgwick (hip-hop founder Kool D.J. Herc’s former home and early performing space) from gentrification, or Rolling Stone‘s current Obama cover piece, seen here, Brown seems to be dutifully cracking the oysters for pearls.

Of course, super-thanks to everyone who’s posting and writing comments. Thanks for blessing my little shingle with your words. Just keep speaking your minds.