Are You Mad At Me?

I don't know what to say. Stephen Glass, WTF were you thinking? I wish I could sit down with him and just pick his brain for about an hour to see what in God's name made him think that writing the best story The New Republic had seen in awhile, would not be looked at by other magazines and that they wouldn't have questions. That someone reading that piece would look at it and say,"well that can't be right." Fabricating stories? Just completely making up everything? When does that ever seem like a good idea?

Shattered Glass was very interesting the second time coming. I saw this movie two years ago, and still, I'm like why would someone ever do that? It makes me wonder if the journalism is that cut-throat and that competetive that people just start making shit up in the hopes that their readers are informed as well as entertained. For those of you reading this who have not done your homework and watched the movie let me paint Glass for you.

Stephen Glass is sweet, good looking, funny, and supportive. He is also the most manipulative son of a bitch to walk this planet. He's a kiss-ass suck up brown noser who might be a good writer, but at this point who the hell knows. Everytime someone asks him if they can speak to him he immediately asks, "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?" At the staff meetings when they let everyone know what it is their working on, he tells these dramatic stories that has everyone laughing and smiling. He waits until they've all calmed down and then says, "I know. It's silly. I probably won't even finish it." Next thing you know it's in the next issue. He knows how to make people feel sorry for him if he's messed up so much to the point that they don't want to punish him. It's absurd.

So back to me being worried. I think this movie depicts a really scary part about being in the journalism business. It's a hard industry. Running ragged under deadlines, needing to get things right 100% of the time. There is no room for errors. I'm not surprised people get scared and start making things up. I'm just annoyed he thought he could continue to get away with it.

The Ring, Second Time Around

"You see the ring before you die." That's cool. Thank for letting me know. Having read the case study for The Ring and J-Horror I realized that a lot of thought goes into making these horror movies, and to be honest, it makes me a tad bit nervous. I've always fantasized about being a producer or writing for movies and now I'm just like, who has the freaking time to sit down and remember all these little rules and accuracies and formats and coloring images and blah blah blah. Kudos to those out there who do this for a living and enjoy it. Me personally? I'll stick with the whole news things.

So, watching RINGU was boring. Sorry to J-Horror movie buffs out there. But it didn't inspire the same nervousness and 'need to know' that The Ring still does for me. Perhaps the digitizing got in the way for me to be able to visually enjoy it, and the subtitles always are hard to pay attention to when your eyes need to be able to focus on the screen. I also felt a serious lacking in...suspense. It might be because I've seen the American version a number of times, but for some reason I don't think that has that much to do with it. I still get a little excited and a little scared watching The Ring. I don't jump out of my seat the way I did when I first saw the movie, but I can still feel my heart start to race and I can feel the anticipation building. Nothing about RINGU excited me. Even the differences in the movies were boring.

Perhaps I'm a sucker for bad horror movies (I've been told I am) or perhaps I need to experience some more J-horror films to really understand their methods. It was lost on me.

Commercials

I must say, this year I am slightly disappointed. Superbowls commercials are suppose to make you laugh, make you want to buy something shiny, inspire dirty thoughts (!). However, I feel as though marketing executives and public relation coordinators are severely lacking. Perhaps the slump in interesting commercials has something to do with the failing economy (I wouldn't be surprised), but still, people come on! Give me something good!!

I will say my two favorites were the talking babies and the High Life commercial. For those of you who were unavailable (or hiding under a rock) the babies commercial is a newer take on the baby ordering items offline. This time he was accompanied by another baby who could care less about the internet and just started singing a song (I don't know the name, comment if you do please). Wasn't the funniest commerical I have ever seen, but I laughed. I was amused. Second favorite commercial of the night was the two seconds of a man in a warehouse who screamed "High Life" and then it was over. Clever, witty. I mean, I still don't know what high life is (??) but it might inspire me to google it.

So, that is my sort but sweet take on our Superbowl 43 commercials. I'll give it a C+.

FOX....uh....FAIL

Watching Outfoxed really made me realize how much I do not like FOX News. For years I've always said, "no, no, I'm a channel 7 girl." I recall one night that Paris Hilton's dogs dying was in their top stories section. Really? Is nothing else going on that we need to know about her stupid little accessory?

And Bill O'Riley? I could write a book about the things that are wrong with that man. I thought broadcast journalism was about speaking the truth to America, letting them know what's going on in the world. I understand that every newscaster has their own opinion in situation and that;s fine. But when you start getting into arguments with guest speakers, political experts, and victims of tragedies, something isn't right. You should be able to ask question that the public wants to know the answers to. Plain and simple. You are there to educate, not judge. And that documentary is a little off-putting for people I believe wanting to go into that field. You want to work for a station that is truly "fair and balanced." They cover both sides of politics honestly and without any sort of reservations. Telling your guest to "shut up" over and over again is so disrespectful. I could not believe that the producers would allow such a thing. For the public to see you, a professional at work, speak to someone like that is outrageous. But the one thing FOX has done right is appealing to their audience: right-wing Conservatives. They don't mind you telling the liberal man to be quiet because they would have done the same thing. It's a really sick game their playing and I think it's unfair to other stations and to the public who have to flip past FOX and listen to that insane babbling garbage. If you want opinionated news read the editorials, visit a blog, take one of them out to lunch and get their opinion that way. I do not watch the news to learn how Bill O'Reily feels about 9/11 personally, I watch the news to learn what's been going on since yesterday.

Outfoxed has really opened my eyes to the situation that not all news stations report news equally. Some actually pretty much suck at it. It actually makes me a little nervous to know that some people lost their jobs because of differences with the reports and how producers use manipulation as motivation. It's sickening.