I have two complaints this morning. One with star athletes and the other with the media. Let's start with the star athletes first.
Yesterday, Carmelo Anthony was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence yesterday. He failed a series of on-the-spot sobriety tests, and he consented to a blood test as well. And although the results of that blood test have yet to be determined, Carmelo released a statement through his attorney, in which he apologized to his family, his team, his fans, etc. Now, it seems to me that if you were NOT guilty of anything you wouldn't have anything to apologize about at all. But my problem is whether you are innocent or not, don't speak through a publicist, a team spokesman, or your attorney. Why not just come out in an unwritten and an unprepared statement, and just speak and apologize that way? Why not just say look, I had to much to drink, I shouldn't have been driving and I apologize. It would still look bad, but at least there would be some attempt to be responsible, and the media, his family and maybe even his teammates would have more respect. Instead, there is this trend where athletes hide behind legal terms, and they play innocent until they absolutely have to admit guilt. I suppose that his their right, but I'm sick of it.
Last night on CNN, Anderson Cooper was interviewing one of the women from the polygamist ranch in Texas. This woman felt like she had been persecuted, because she had been separated from her kids, and held in harsh conditions by government officials. She was also upset that she hadn't been allowed to even say goodbye to her children before the separation. As you can imagine, the woman was very passionate about her plea to see her child; however, Anderson Cooper was basically ignoring this woman's emotion, he was asking a series of questions about the polygamist ranch. Cooper asked the woman why she stayed on the ranch, he asked about other women who had left the ranch, and he even question the woman's intelligence on one occasion. I suppose Cooper was just being a typical journalist by asking questions about the compound, but his approach was just all wrong. A good interviewer would let this woman talk about what she wanted to talk about, and then slide in other questions as he went along, but Cooper did no such thing. Instead, he succeeded in making this woman look crazy, because all of her answers came back to her wanting to see her children, which to me was the real story. It was a painful interview to watch, regardless of how I may feel about this polygamist ranch and the people in it. I had to check to make sure I was watching CNN and not the Fox News Channel.
2 comments:
Here's a novel ideal: how about Carmelo and all these other celebrities hire a damn driver???? Then they can get as pissy drunk as they want and then won't have to issue a statement through their lawyer, publicist, etc?? And do you really want some of these athletes/celebrities to speak unscripted??? It would make for funny clips on youtube to watch over and over...hahahahahaaa
Anderson Cooper has a rep for being a softy...He had to prove he could be "hard" and tackle the "tough topics" with gusto but I don't think a woman solely focused on seeing her kids would be considered a tough topic.
Cooper was trying to deal with the fact that he was speaking to someone who sounded painfully coached, scripted and rehearsed who comes from a community where people are mentally and physically controlled (according to women who have fled and boys who have been kicked out for reaching an age that would put them in competition with the men for girls). He was following up with questions raised by her speech (e.g. asking her to explain the community and her participation after she had declared that there are false idea about who the FLDS are), but she was unwilling to go "off script" even to address relevant matters she herself had raised. He was also trying to ask about the essential matter of the allegations of abuse, which the woman also refused to address except to say the complaints had come from outside the community and there wasn't evidence. My impression was that he was trying to be somewhat gentle and diplomatic. Asking about the woman's knowledge of concentration camps gave the woman the benefit of the doubt that the lack of access to outside information and education had been the source of that ludicrous and offensive comparison between a temporary detainment to investigate child abuse allegations and the torture and slaughter of millions of people.
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