Media Circle Jerk

I blame VH1 for the resurgence of meaningless lists over the past decade, since they started with the 100 Greatest Bands of All Time.  (None was more self-serving and ridiculous than Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, which had “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones at no. 1 and no. 2).

But this is bad too.  Forbes ranked the 25 Most Influential Liberals now that Obama’s in charge.  Some are good (Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart, Matthew Yglesias, Kos) and some are a little inexplicable (I would hesitate to categorize Oprah with the rest of them; I would relegate her to the category of the social rather than to the political, in academic terms.  And no Olbermann?  I don’t like him but he’s def waxing gibbous).

And some are awful–and they’re mostly towards the top.  Maureen Dowd is in there, presumably at her scratching post.  Chris Matthews, also listed.  As is Christopher Hitchens, which shows you that being an atheist is so freakish and unacceptable in America that supporting Bush and advocating torture won’t get a nonbeliever listed as a neocon. Andrew Sullivan?  Oh right, you can’t call yourself a conservative and also be one if you’re gay.

And Tom Friedman is no. 4.  Why, why, why.  At least Paul Krugman is no. 1.  (His column today is pretty good, by the way).  A Nobel trumps two Pulitzers.

I think Forbes felt left out by a few inaugural parties and wanted to remind people they they service other purposes besides telling them how much money they’re losing.  Namely, informing the glitterati how great they are.  Oh, the politics of politics.

Avocadoes-Gone-Wild

At the farmer’s market down the block every Saturday, I always wonder why, in the land of $1.00/lb heirloom tomatoes and $3.50 10-lb bags of Valencia oranges, you can’t find avocadoes for less than $1 each.  It’s California!  Trader Joe’s in Manhattan has (or had) a “guacamole kit” for $2.99 that contained 2 avocadoes, a tomato, a jalapeno pepper, a lime and a shallot.  Unreal.

Well, there’s this.

I want an avocado tree!  They produce so much fruit you couldn’t eat it all.  I want superabundance in my yard.

Grace Jones Releases New Album

Fox News Apologia

I think the financial crisis has made me into a total structuralist.  A financial system that, since decoupling the dollar from gold in the 70s, increasingly dealt with abstractions could only come toppling down just the way it is.  I don’t think any other outcome was possible.  (And the idea of gold being some objective measurement of worth is pretty metaphysical, too).

Similarly, when Fox News does something stupid with racist/sexist/homophobic undertones, and people get mad, I don’t really know what to think.  That is what Fox News is for, so to speak.  That’s why people like it.  When they apologize, as they have done for airing a text message in support of “Barack the Magic Negro,” a song distributed by the guy who’s running to be part of the RNC, it doesn’t seem to mean anything.  Their viewership doesn’t regard them as an abusive boyfriend who keeps apologizing insincerely after every serious breach of trust.  They probably read the apologies as proof that the “actual,” “liberal” media who control everything and against whom Fox exists as the people’s alternative do actually control everything.

Further, who cares?  You either watch Fox News because you like hearing Sean Hannity talk about how great America is, or you watch some other channel because you like your news superficial and slightly less right-wing, or you read it somewhere because you like actual news that can’t fit in a chyron.

I think the future of Fox News, in 2009 and beyond, will consist of the same old thing plus the occasional consequence-free apology when they go too far.  So getting worked up about it has no meaning whatsoever.  In that way the network really mirrors the Republican party, and every so-called media watchdog is a Harry Reid, who might work up the gumption to issue a strongly worded letter when he’s not too busy policing fellow Democrats.