Deja Vu All Over Again at the USDA

In the category of “Man, I hate it when I'm right”:

A couple of days ago, I was at the gym using the elliptical machine (boring!) and the gym had the TV tuned to Rick Sanchez's “Rick's List” show on CNN.  I usually avoid this type of tripe like the plague, but unless I wanted to spend 40 minutes staring at the calories burned readout or the second-by-second ticking down of the clock on my workout, I had no choice. 

Anyway, the subject matter for this particular edition of “Rick's List” was the fallout from the Shirley Sherrod debacle and Sanchez was delighting in this prime opportunity for sticking it to Fox News.  Called “Shirley's Story”, the segment focused on the latest developments in Sherrod's firing from the USDA and the reconsideration given her dismissal following the revelation that that dismissal had been based on—wait for it-- incomplete information. 

As we all know, everyone from the NAACP to the White House (all of whom had originally tripped all over themselves in their rush to denounce Sherrod) has been in a stampede of backtracking since realizing that in their haste to stamp out perceived racism they had neglected to view all of the facts (or even most of the facts, or even a preponderance of the facts).

I am shocked and chagrined (not)!

This type of story is all too familiar.  In fact, I wrote about this sort of thing in a previous blog entry.  Unfortunately, it looks like nothing has changed in the interim, the ultimate proof in this particular pudding being self-evident. 

But I find myself wondering who was most culpable in this whole distasteful incident:  Was it the blogger who started this tidal wave of controversy by airing a very select portion of Sherrod's speech?  The so-called “news” networks like Fox that ran with it and stirred up the pot?  Or the equally culpable parties like the NAACP and the White House that almost single-handedly ruined this woman's career and reputation (at least, temporarily) in their rush to judgment based on misinformation? 

Judging from the reactions of the parties involved, I'd say all were to blame to some extent.  While the White House and the NAACP tried to bury their mea culpas in a self-serving “defense” of being “snookered” by Fox News, Fox News itself attempted to distance itself from the mess by claiming they never reported this incident as “news”.   Pure semantics at its self-serving best.

What ever happened to accountability? 

Fox News can try all it wants to distance itself from this mess, but when they have made their money based on the hyperbolic bloviating of people like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity (both of whom ran with this story when it was originally reported), their fate and their reputation are inextricably intertwined with them.  And deservedly so.   They deserve what they get.

Meanwhile, the reactions from the White House and society at large are more difficult to quantify, but are much more disappointing.  While President Obama shouldn't be expected to have personally reviewed Ms. Sherrod's entire speech to get “the rest of the story”,  the people who work for him and most certainly the people who initially made the recommendation to fire Sherrod surely had that responsibility. 

And as for the NAACP, while it may be admirable to have “zero tolerance” for racism of any sort, it behooves such organizations (and all of us) to consider all of the facts before making such judgments.  As for being “snookered”, shame on the NAACP for not taking responsibility for their own actions and shame on anybody who would take the word of Fox News as gospel without further corroboration.  

What does it say about us as a society that we decry those who would make uninformed assumptions about people based on the color of their skin but then accuse people of racism based on the same type of misinformed assumptions? 

There's an increasingly disturbing intolerance in this country for what used to be called freedom of expression and there's precious little effort being made to give people the benefit of the doubt in these types of situations. 

Instead of focusing on education and enlightenment through healthy debate, we focus on censorship and suppression, blackballing from our midst those who would disagree with us.  Let me tell you, folks, censorship is censorship, whether it's directed against “unpopular” thoughts and ideas or against what we consider to be more “acceptable” thought.  (i.e., what's in vogue).  And if there's one thing I've learned in my lifetime from personal observation, it's that you don't change people's underlying attitudes by suppressing their opinions. 

And I also know that my own attitude of distrust toward the media won't be changing anytime soon if CNN's coverage of this incident is any indicator of things to come.  In my view, CNN missed a golden opportunity here to address the “big picture” issue, instead contenting themselves with using their air time for yet another self-serving opportunity to bash their rival network.  

Perhaps they should instead be asking why it is that so-called news stations continue to pump out half-truths and lies and why it is that we are all so willing to lick it up with a spoon. 

Perhaps it's time we all began asking as much.

The Cult of LeBron: Fellowship of the Insufferable

For those few remaining fans of LeBron James (outside of Miami, of course), you may wish to avert your eyes now.  This is sure to be a hyperbolic firestorm.

Can I say it now?  I really despise LeBron James, and I suspect I'm not alone on that one, following last night's pitiful display of unabridged narcissism on ESPN.

Oh, I didn't actually WATCH “The Decision” (and how self-important is that title, by the way?).  Then again, I didn't have to watch it, seeing as video clips and audio bites have been making the rounds across our televisions, computer screens and radios in a steady stream of fallout after the fact.  Still, the whole episode leaves me feeling like I need to take a shower.

I would say that it “almost” makes me embarrassed to be an NBA fan, but I'm not even sure I was a fan anymore (at least not of the NBA as it is currently constituted).  And make no mistake about it, this was embarrassing on a grand scale.  I don't know which was worse:  watching for the past couple of years as "the King" relieved himself all over the collective upturned faces of his minions until it culminated with last night's retch-fest; or watching those fawning masses not only taking the dousing but sucking it up with a straw while begging for more.  Or perhaps most nauseating of all was the breathless commentary of a media that had long ago shed the bothersome bonds of journalistic integrity in its relentless pursuit of the Next Big Thing in the cult of celebrity.

Oh, I've long known that professional sports is big business, that it's primarily about endorsements and paychecks and entertainment extravaganzas more traditionally witnessed with the WWE.  I guess that's just part of growing up.  But the tripe that millions witnessed last night goes way beyond the pale, even for a sports cynic such as myself.

There's an old Stephen King miniseries called “The Stand” where Jamey Sheridan (yes, that Jamey Sheridan from “Law & Order” spinoff fame) plays a post-apocalyptic devil incarnate in cowboy boots.  In one of the penultimate scenes of the movie, the cheering crowds are gathered in Las Vegas to worship Sheridan as he prepares to dismember two innocent sacrificial chumps for the collective joy of his cheering minions.  It's a scene of spectacle and an obvious reference to both the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and to modern-day society's immorality and mob mentality.  It's also the scene that kept running through my head as ESPN dragged us inexorably closer to the moment of “King James's” self-coronation and pronouncement of the American burg where he would deign to “take his talents”.  Turns out, it wasn't Cleveland.  Big surprise.

Naturally, the people of Cleveland are devastated.  And, no doubt along with the people of New York, New Jersey, Chicago and any other city whose team and hopes were jerked around by this jerk, they are angry.  And frankly, it's about time.  For at least a year now I've been wondering when the fans of Cleveland were going to stop prostrating themselves and start resenting LeBron.  I mean, at what point exactly does a person start to feel a sense of shame at the loss of personal dignity that is required to grovel in an effort to please a fickle, overpaid superstar for whom no amount of fawning would ever be enough?

I feel bad for the fans of Cleveland.  I really do.  After all, they took that last step in self-inflicted humiliation by creating a musical love letter to LeBron, a “Hymn to Him”, as it were, only to have their affections spurned before a national audience.  Called “Please Stay LeBron” (set to the tune, appropriately enough, of “We Are the World”, penned by yet another insulated ambassador of selfdom by the name of Michael Jackson), the heartfelt rendition resembles nothing so much as what passes for Sunday worship by the NBA faithful.  But I can't also help wonder if these same fans would've seen LeBron for the selfish megalomaniac he is if he had elected to keep his “talents” in Cleveland.  I'm thinking no, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

Still, I have to confess that there's a part of me that thinks the fans of Cleveland brought at least some of this on themselves.  I'm hearing more and more of how over the past 17 years or so seemingly everyone in the Buckeye State, from his family to his friends to his coaches, teachers and teammates and other assorted sycophants and hangers-on have done everything in their power to enable LeBron's colossal sense of entitlement.  He's been surrounded by a solar system of lesser planets, all willing to simultaneously subjugate their own egos while inflating his.   Basking in his glow, they've gladly cloaked his sins for him.  Too bad there's not a fart blanket big enough or strong enough to cloak us from the noxious, malodorous cloud now emanating from his gravitational pull.

I mentioned earlier that the hoopla surrounding “The Decision” reminded me of that mob scene in “The Stand”.  Something else I remember from that scene in the movie is when one of the few people in the slithering mob stood up to his fellow countrymen in an attempt to stop the insanity, yelling “this ain't how Americans act!”.  Maybe not.  But it's a fair imitation of how sports fans act.  And we all know that we get exactly what we deserve.


Rant over (for now).