Not All News is, Well, News
BY t. tara turk
Blogs went crazy the other day after a seemingly immature dope gave Gawker.com a story about his one night stand (read if you dare) with with the circus show of a candidate, Christine O'Donnell. The craze was not what you think, however, as the story caused a backlash on Gawker.com as well as the dope who sold his story. Why the backlash? Well, primarily, it's not because we don't care about public figures' sex lives (we do) but it was because the guy in question was so horrendous and callous in his retelling of the encounter that many realized even a crazy lady like O'Donnell didn't deserve a "Mean Girls" style beat down from a guy, 15 years her junior, telling the story of how bad their drunk Halloween encounter was. It crossed the line.
On Twitter, women were appalled. I'm talking smart women like Donna Brazile who put some light on the point that however we feel about a candidate, our voting and news should pertain to where they stand on issues and if they did anything illegal or hurt someone in a way that was illegal. A bad sexual encounter (which actually turned out to be not even "sexual") doesn't qualify. If anything, the idiot's telling of how O'Donnell "groomed" herself actually gave her more sympathy with the public than even her own admonishing of the story.
This is what happens when some people think you can take information and put "news"
clothes on it. Gawker.com and Defamer.com, while sometimes entertaining, are not news sources and shouldn't act as such. Case in point, magazine Marie Claire blogger Maura Kelly is coming under fire on the sonic waves for being grossed out by the two leads of CBS's "Mike & Molly" (a show about two people who meet at Over eater's Anonymous - if you can't keep all the new shows straight like me). Kelly came under fire when she had this to say about overweight people:
"So anyway, yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room - just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair."
Even the series creator, Mike Roberts, responded to this lowly blogger's bigoted rant against people (she apologized - kind of), causing more attention to, well, nothing. As one of my favorite comments on this story said, "If I have to debate you about common decency, then I really shouldn't be talking to you anyway."
T. Tara Turk's fiction has appeared in African Voices, Exit the Apple and the international anthology X24. Her plays have appeared at New Federal Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater and the Actor’s Studio. Her screenplays have been featured in such festivals as Reel Sisters, BHERC and on BETJ. Contact her at scruffdiva[at]gmail.com.
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| Christine O'Donnell via recent Gawker story |
Blogs went crazy the other day after a seemingly immature dope gave Gawker.com a story about his one night stand (read if you dare) with with the circus show of a candidate, Christine O'Donnell. The craze was not what you think, however, as the story caused a backlash on Gawker.com as well as the dope who sold his story. Why the backlash? Well, primarily, it's not because we don't care about public figures' sex lives (we do) but it was because the guy in question was so horrendous and callous in his retelling of the encounter that many realized even a crazy lady like O'Donnell didn't deserve a "Mean Girls" style beat down from a guy, 15 years her junior, telling the story of how bad their drunk Halloween encounter was. It crossed the line.
 |
| Donna Brazile |
On Twitter, women were appalled. I'm talking smart women like Donna Brazile who put some light on the point that however we feel about a candidate, our voting and news should pertain to where they stand on issues and if they did anything illegal or hurt someone in a way that was illegal. A bad sexual encounter (which actually turned out to be not even "sexual") doesn't qualify. If anything, the idiot's telling of how O'Donnell "groomed" herself actually gave her more sympathy with the public than even her own admonishing of the story.
This is what happens when some people think you can take information and put "news"
 |
| Maura Kelly, Marie Clarie.com |
"So anyway, yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room - just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair."
Even the series creator, Mike Roberts, responded to this lowly blogger's bigoted rant against people (she apologized - kind of), causing more attention to, well, nothing. As one of my favorite comments on this story said, "If I have to debate you about common decency, then I really shouldn't be talking to you anyway."
T. Tara Turk's fiction has appeared in African Voices, Exit the Apple and the international anthology X24. Her plays have appeared at New Federal Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater and the Actor’s Studio. Her screenplays have been featured in such festivals as Reel Sisters, BHERC and on BETJ. Contact her at scruffdiva[at]gmail.com.
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