Confluence 05/29/2009
 

I've got three things buzzing around my mind this vle-post chemo day.

1.  Newsweek's Redesign:  Having concluded that "news" is being covered by the 24/7 blogosphere and news channels, Newsweek has been in the process of reinventing itself as a news outlet.  Instead of being a "current news" delivery device, they've moved in the direction of offering commentary, in-depth interviews and profiles.

I like the thinking very much but believe they will be better able to engage their audience in this new format if they break things up a bit more.  Intersperse commentary (and woo Quindlan back for heavens' sake) with more in-depth articles.  Sprinkle the social commentary fluff-stuff throughout the magazine instead of saving it for the end.  A few little tweaks and Newsweek may be onto something.  Sorta wish Meacham had been in charge of the automotive industry this last decade or so.

2.  My at long last viewing of Shut up and Sing, a documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the "long road" they took to come back from lead singer Natalie Maines' off the cuff comment in London, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, that she was embarassed that the President of the United States was from (her home state) of Texas.

The backlash from that comment (mainly from Country Music fans and the stations that used anti-Chick backlash to whip up some publicity) was brutish, ill-informed, and (as it turned out) dead wrong about the war being the right decision.   

The film follows these three incredibly talented performers as they navigate the fallout of Maines' comment and their subsequent choices.  There are some interesting nuances to the argument about free speech.  It seems like the producers of the film were all for Natalie's free speech but not so much for the free speech of those who disagreed with the Chicks.  I've been there, to a much lesser degree, when I wrote about abortion rights and came home to a hateful call on my message machine about being a baby killer.  It's hard to support someone's right to free speech when it gets personal.

3. Jon Meacham's interview with President Obama.  In it, Obama describes his process for deciding to surge troops in Afghanistan.  Listening to the way he approached the problem--taking into account historical contexts and lessons learned by other super powers who ventured there, gathering together people from every agency with something to add to the discussion, listening and asking questions, then demanding answers before making a decision--how refreshing in a Commander-in-Chief. 

Those Dixie Chicks, they were right on. 

 


Comments

Kenneth R. Morefield

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:08:52

Hi Laura:
I'm so glad you liked SHUT UP AND SING. Here's a link to my review from awhile back. (http://tinyurl.com/nb25oj). Director Barbara Kopple also made HARLAN COUNTY USA, and I was able to hear her give a Q&A about documentaries at last year's FULL FRAME, where they screened her Mike Tyson biopic. (http://tinyurl.com/kv3hrz). She's an extremely gifted filmmaker; definitely one of my favorites. (As in, if you told me she had a new film out, I'd get in line without knowing or caring what it was about.)

 

Steve Peden

Sun, 31 May 2009 09:07:14

Laura,

I'm curious - other than your personal, emotional reaction, do you have, oh, you know, any actual FACTS and logical ARGUMENT for your premise that the critics of the Dixie Chicks were "wrong about the war being the right decision"????

Given the status of government, individual rights (and, particularly, WOMEN'S rights) and public security in Iraq, I'm wondering whence this Liberal certainty that Iraq is clearly a failure.

If that's what failure looks like, maybe Rush was wishing Obama well by hoping for his failure.

 

Laura

Sun, 31 May 2009 11:58:10

Hey Ken,

Your review was the reason I bought the film (oh, so long ago). I'll revisit it though.

I'll check out this director's other films based on your unequivocal support!

 

Laura

Sun, 31 May 2009 12:22:03

Hi Steve,

Well, I suppose since I'm a woman my position on the Iraq war must stem from my emotions?

Or did you have some evidence to support that conclusion from elsewhere? <wry grin>

To be fair, I didn't communicate as clearly as I should have with that paragraph.

I believe, based on the evidence we now see (the money our government spent on war in Iraq and continues to spend to the detriment of our own financial security, WMD's being MIA, torture being sanctioned as a tool to the detriment of our national conscience, continued difficulties in the area as opposed to Iraq becoming a beacon of democracy for the Islamic world, etc.) that we were wrong to go to war in Iraq.

I also believe the "strategy" employed by the Bush administration will be examined for years as an example of how not to plan for military intervention (or how to not plan...).

As always, I am aware that there are some (not as many as there used to be) who disagree with me.

Women's rights in Iraq, btw, were better under Saddam than they were immediately following the invasion when the jihaddists began taking over territory and imposing sharia law. You might be confusing Iraq with Afghanistan here.

 



Leave a Reply