It is
the media. It is not the
mainstream media, and it is
not some post-hip sobriquet like the
lamestream media which, face it, along with
Repugnican, wingnut, Freeper, Faux News,
and a host of other tired old terms has passed its hour to be purged
from the language. It is the media's job to report. As citizens, our
job is to communicate among ourselves on what and how they report, which
is another reason to avoid slangy terms. There is nothing hip or particularly communicative about
acting like teens speaking in adult-proof code.
Marshall McLuhan
said, "The medium is the message." All of the media, these days, seem
to be sending one message which, so far, only
theSkimm has actually articulated.
theSkimm makes it easier to be smarter.
We're
the daily e-mail newsletter that gives you everything you need to start
your day. We do the reading for you - across subject lines and party
lines - and break it down with fresh editorial content.
We read. You Skimm.
The idea is arguable, no laughable, that consuming what has been read and broken down for you makes you smarter. At least
theSkimm comes out and says it has put your veggies in a KitchenAid with apples,
pears, and high fructose corn syrup. All of the media do it, and it
is a little like reading Lamb's Tales but not as elegant or as much
fun. At its worst, it leaves huge information gaps that abound among the
electorate and presents an exercise in frustration for those who prefer
their asparagus and brussels sprouts whole and unadulterated.
There was a time, in the early days of this
blog, so, not that distant in the past, when I could go to media sources
and find an entire interview to post. Today, a mere seven plus years into
this work, all I can find are media bytes. Little 1.5 - 3.5 minute
spoonsful. As
theSkimm unabashedly tells you, it is all cut up and pre-chewed for you - like
baby food. Unfortunately, they are the only ones telling you that,
leaving the impression that you are getting the whole story
from other sources, but that is not the case. Most of what you find
today is Gerber's in another guise, and it no longer seems to matter
whence the source - there no longer
is a mainstream. The media has achieved true social, if not economic, democracy.
When I posted, two days ago, about
Fareed Zakaria's stroke of genius in
dividing his interview with Helen Mirren in two and asking her how she
would portray Hillary Clinton, I gave credit where it was
not due. That
was not Fareed's fault
entirely, although he did supply the mini-clip
of the conversation. Throughout yesterday, additional stories about
Dame Helen's remarks arose, and I added one of those to
that post.
Nothing I read or posted prepared me for the whole, real story. Nothing
rectified my initial misconception.
Who, then, had the brainstorm
and should have received the credit? It was not the interviewer. It
was Dame Helen herself who brought up the subject of Hillary Clinton,
along with her own appetite to play that role should a script appear.
She did insert a disclaimer that there was some self-interest, but that was
not really why the subject came up. The topic was roles for women on
stage and screen.
Dame Helen has long been an advocate for
broader, deeper, more complex longitudinal portrayals of women in drama. In an
age when sustainability is a buzzword and even, somehow, an area of
academic pursuit, female actors have less sustainable careers
than their male counterparts, and, as Mirren points out, ever has it
been so. The Bard did not provide much in the way of roles for mature
women which is why Mirren portrayed Prospero as Prospera in Julie
Taymor's fantastic production of
The Tempest. It is a matter
of taking on and refitting the male roles for the mature woman. She
stopped short of suggesting she would ever play Lear. Here is how Hillary and 2016 actually entered the conversation.
ZAKARIA: Over the span of a 50-year career in acting, Helen Mirren
has done a lot of things. She has done everything from high
Shakespearian theater to the scandalous 70s film of "Caligula," played
everything from a queen to a Mossad agent, and won everything from an
Oscar to a Tony to an Emmy. But the one thing she has never played is a
Bond girl. Is she bitter? Not Dame Helen.
ZAKARIA: You said we've all sat and watched as James Bond has become more and more geriatric. While his girlfriends --
HELEN
MIRREN, ACTRESS: Get younger and younger. That was the case for a
while, wasn't it? I mean, it was like embarrassing. I thought it was
ridiculous.
ZAKARIA: But do you think it's -- is it a big problem
in Hollywood that men get cast for roles well into their 60s and 70s,
and for women it's more of a struggle?
MIRREN: It is more of a
struggle. But even Shakespeare did that to us, you know. As you get
older, even the Shakespeare roles become -- that's why we have to start
stealing the men's roles, you know. Doing like I did "The Tempest,"
Prospero. And it's great that a lot of women are, you know, doing
Hamlet, doing "Henry V." I'm a sure there will be a female Othello soon.
And I love that. I think it's absolutely great. Because, why not.
Video >>>>
But
it's changing. I've always said, don't worry about roles in drama --
well, do -- moan and complain, and I do. But really spend your energies
on changing roles for women in real life, because, as night follows day,
as the roles for women in real life change, they will change in drama.
And I really hope that we're going to see a female president in the next
-- when are the elections?
ZAKARIA: 2016.
MIRREN: 2016. Oh,
not till then. A while. Oh, next year! So I hope we see a female
president next year. That would be absolutely fantastic, and that would
make a huge difference to the understanding of what women can be.
ZAKARIA: Do you think you could pull off the accent for Hillary Clinton?
MIRREN:
She would be a wonderful person to play. Somewhere down the line,
someone will do a story. Because she has had -- well, it was an
extraordinary trajectory, and the brilliance, brilliance at handling her
world.
And what unbelievable challenges she's had over the years.
ZAKARIA:
If you were to compare the two, the queen and Hillary, what is the
defining character of Hillary Clinton that you, as somebody playing her,
imagine to be playing her, what would you be trying to capture?
Video >>>>
MIRREN:
That's a very interesting question. I mean, the enormous intelligence,
the brain that I think is very, very, very fast-moving. And I think the
incredible tenacity. The queen of -- Elizabeth Windsor, I call her, is
-- it's a different -- hers is I just -- put my head down, I do what I'm
supposed to do, I do it as well as I can, and I don't argue, and I
don't complain, and I just do it. Hillary is much fiercer than that.
It's, you know, she is a lioness of a kind. A lioness. And the --
Elizabeth Windsor is not, you know. I don't know what animal she is.
I'll have to think about that one.
Read more >>>>
No
run up to this interview prepared me for Dame Helen being the one who
brought up Hillary and the election. Everything that was out there -
and ended up in
the earlier post - led me to think it all Fareed's idea. These two videos are all that CNN offers. Not the entire interview. Only these. Important content has been skipped,
The
real story was much deeper than an interviewer with a campaign cycle
agenda. It was a woman with a much bigger agenda, changing the roles
of women in the world.
Why did I not know that this was Helen's
subject to raise? Because of the piecemeal nature of reportage. The
story was cherry-picked for me by the host and by those who wrote about
the interview in advance
having seen it in advance. This was
not at all about a smart anchor raising a brilliant question, as the
promos had me believe. It was about a brilliant female leader
perceiving the value of expanding the roles of women in general and, as
an example and role model, promoting one brilliant woman in particular.
Why
was that not the message we all received as we looked forward to this
interview? Because the media adulterated it, masticated and strained it
for our consumption, just like baby food, and all the good stuff stayed
in the strainer and went into the compost bin.
This was less about Helen Mirren wanting a role and therefore wanting
Hillary Clinton to ascend to that role than it was about Helen Mirren
wanting to boost
all women and recognizing Hillary's ascendancy for its value in that social revolution.
Maybe the fault in the previews had something to do with men having provided all
the promotional reports I saw about this interview. Not that they
necessarily meant to, but they edited out those crucial first words on the
subject. Men are used to Hillary being brilliant and fierce and
many men support her. Is it possible that, to more men than I would hope, this was somehow scary? "Spend your energies on changing roles for
women in real life." Why was that part of the story excised?
Thank
you, Dame Helen Mirren for your wise advice.
You are one of the most brilliant people around, and I
cannot imagine two better role models and leaders for women than you and
Hillary Clinton.
We women, especially, should be wary.
When we see clips of Hillary, we miss some of the context. That
original clip of Helen lacked important context. So much of the time
all we see, and all I can find, are the little pre-digested bytes, bits,
and pieces. I have always tried to find full transcripts and videos of
Hillary's speeches and remarks, but even at her campaign site they are
few and far between. All the information comes in memes, clips, and
shorthand. If the medium is the message, as McLuhan said, we are all
being shortchanged.
APB, Media!!! We do not really need you to do the hunting for us. Lionesses come in prides! We hunt. We have teeth! We can rip the meat off the bone and chew it for ourselves.
