They Really Do Make News

While CNN is quietly and not so quietly laughing at Fox News for doing non-news, it is serving up its own gems daily. Take the Oscar for example. They have been talking about the nominations and predicting the winners daily on every show everyday for weeks now. It would not be an understatement to say they are promoting the hell out of it. The Oscar is an award given by an industry organisation to its members in the profession for good performance. It should be of no particular interest to the general public. Its popularity today is due largely to the constant reporting by the media; that is to say, it is the media that make it important. It is curious than when CNN runs a report on Hollywood’s disconnect with “Middle America.” They interview a senior church group literary in the middle of America about the “gay theme” movie nominated this year. Of course these good people have to go a couple towns over if they want to see a movie, and, understandably, they have not seen any for quite a few years. So, when asked they can only resort to the common answer: “we don’t like all the sex in movies.” The irony is that these “gay theme” movies have little to no sex in them, no in Capote, not in Transamerica, and very little in Brokeback Mountain. The old lady wants to see movies like “The Sound of Music” when asked what would she want to see. Well, she probably has not seen a movie since that Austrian story about a cold and remote father of seven falling in love with a young nun working in his house not entire of her own free will. If these seniors are the true “Middle America” then it is a rather sad statement for the country. The Oscar, as such, has no responsibility to represent the “Middle America”; it represents only the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It of course has no “connection” with “Middle America” or any America for that matter. It is organizations like CNN that make the award the standard setter of movie achievement. For them to then turn and accuse the Oscar and Hollywood of being disconnected with this mythical place, it is the worst kind of self-serving hypocrisy. If movie is an art then it should not be beholden to any part of society. And if it is a business, then, as free marketers like to say, it should have its financial interest as its primary consideration. The “Middle America” in the report probably would not want to see Théodore Géricault's paintings of severed heads. And Halliburton would not care about anybody unless they hold large bunch of stocks. The question is not if and why Hollywood is disconnected with anyone anywhere. The question for CNN should be why it is important enough for CNN to spend more airtime on it than Bush’s nuclear agreement with India.