PopPolitics Weblog
a weekly roundup of pop culture and
politics in the news

Quote of the Week:
”I’m for any way that isn’t demeaning that gets politics into the popular
culture. I think we can learn more about a candidate in an hour on Oprah
than during an angry press conference.” — Craig Crawford, editor of The
Hotline political newsletter 
source: The
Boston Globe (Sept. 21)

Mind
Over Matter 
Brian Lowry of the Los Angeles Times
takes issue with a survey about objectionable television programming that was
touted by a group of advertisers who support family-friendly programming.
"Without diminishing the findings of the study, having advertisers carry on
about objectionable TV content is rather laughable, given that advertising has
always played an influential role regarding content on broadcast television and
that commercials are often as racy as anything else you’re apt to see in prime
time," Lowry writes, adding that ideas, not racy content, are more likely to scare off advertisers.

"What advertisers fear, rather, are ideas and issues, especially those
likely to stoke the fires of controversy," says Lowry. "Bring up abortion –
even without taking a position on the matter — and advertisers head for the
hills. Religion, in any substantive way, can be equally dicey … The irony is
that TV’s best programs  — The Practice, Law & Order, The
West Wing, etc. — do explore substantive issues, and many advertisers are
more uncomfortable with that than with sexual innuendo in the dopiest sitcoms or
karate kicks on Xena: Warrior Princess and Walker, Texas Ranger."

Plus: Dems
court Hollywood at fundraiser

Couch
Potatoes Introduced To Candidates
George W. Bush kicked off the week on The Oprah Winfrey Show (see story
and picture in The Washington Post) and ended with Regis Philbin, who
shared hosting duties that day with Sue the truck driver of Survivor
fame. Al Gore, who has already done Oprah and Late Show with David
Letterman, sat with Jay Leno. Sen. Joe Lieberman has visited The Daily
Show and crooned ”My Way” on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Is there
an end in sight?

Coming Up – The cover story of the Sept. 24 edition of New
York Times Magazine judges the impact of Leno and Letterman on the election.
 

Scary
Ad
NBC banned a Nike ad featuring Olympic runner Suzy Favor Hamilton leaving a
chain saw-wielding bad guy in the dust followed by Nike’s Olympic Slogan:
"Why sport? You’ll live longer." The ad, a take-off of Friday the
13th flicks, generated complaints from viewers who objected to "the
scary and violent content" of the commercial, Paul Farhi writes in the Washington
Post. Lisa Schmeiser of teevee.net thinks the ad’s detractors should
be running
toward a sense of humor. "This spot is great," writes
Schmeiser, "chick athletes are being treated as actual jocks, with handy
physical skills." ESPN is running the same ad without controversy.

Plus: View
the banned Nike ad at AdCritic.com

Hollywood
(and U.S.) Still Divided
One year after the NAACP made a fuss over the lack
of representation of minorities on television, little progress has been made. "Hollywood
has a pervasive attitude problem," Bernard Anderson, an assistant secretary
at the U.S. Department of Labor, said during the 30th
annual Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation’s legislative conference. A study
by the Writers Guild of America found that 92 percent of all black writers are
confined to black sitcoms, most of which appear on the WB and UPN Networks.
"NAACP President Kwesi Mfume blamed not only the Hollywood studios for the
lack of minority faces on television and behind the camera, but also advertisers
and talent agencies for promulgating the conventional wisdom that black shows
won’t sell," writes Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post.

Plus: Eric Deggans, a TV critic for the St. Petersburg Times, compares
the majority of black-centered television shows with shopping in his old
neighborhood supermarket - in both cases, the options are terrible, but there
are few alternatives. "Who in their
right mind would sit through a drama as awkward as City of Angels or a
comedy as stale as The Parkers if they weren’t starved for the sight of
black folks on television?" 

A new
federal study released Thursday shows racism is still at large in the U.S.,
and it is visible in the differences between blacks and whites in income,
incarceration rates and access to education and healthcare — AP report in Salon.
Read
the report published by the State Department and the Department of Justice

"Mutual
Admiration Society"
One can only guess what Lieberman thinks of Frank Zappa’s "Catholic
Girls," but Chris Mooney of The American Prospect
writes that Zappa’s widow is a "fervent Gore supporter and a top
Democratic Party donor," despite the fact that Zappa labeled Tipper Gore a
"cultural terrorist" in the mid-1980s during the brouhaha over music
lyrics. In fact, Gail Zappa, who describes her relationship with the Gores as a
"mutual admiration society," says any antagonism has been overstated. 

Don’t
Ask, Don’t Laugh
Although NBC’s Will
and Grace, one of the few shows on network television to feature gay
characters in major roles, won an Emmy on Sunday for "outstanding comedy
series," the military still doesn’t find much humor in homosexuality –
though there are signs it’s lightening up. An Army panel ruled earlier this week that
Arizona State Rep. Steve May (R), an Army reservist who commented on the floor
of the Arizona Legislature on a bill that would have prohibited government
benefits for employees’ gay partners, should be given an honorable discharge for
revealing that he is gay. Many other members of the military who have been
investigated for violating the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy have
received dishonorable discharges. May, however, plans on appealing the decision;
he wants the Army to allow him to be retained, according to Reuters. The
military’s findings on May’s case can be viewed here.

Plus: The York Daily Record (Pa.) published a wedding announcement
last week for a male homosexual couple. Not surprisingly, it received numerous
letters and phone calls in protest. An
e-mail exchange between one irate reader and the newspaper’s
publisher/editor was posted on the paper’s site. 

Counting
For Your Supper
Advertising has penetrated children’s books in the form of familiar looking
characters — Cheerios, Froot Loops and M & M’s. Counting books featuring
brand name snacks are a big hit with toddlers, and with some teachers and
parents who think it’s a great way to get kids interested in, um, words. "We
love them. You hate to always use food, but it is such a hit with the kids
because they can count them and then it is so rewarding for them to eat
them." Judy Kelley, a kindergarten teacher, tells
The New York Times‘ David D. Kirkpatrick. 

Not surprisingly, Kellogg officials think it’s a brilliant match. "It
is a great way to get the Froot Loops brand equity into a different place, where
normally you don’t get exposure ” taking it from the cereal aisle and into
another area like learning," said Meghan Parkhurst, a spokeswoman for
Kellogg. The teacher who came up with the
idea is more blunt: "They (candy and cereal makers) can’t usually get to
the books parents read their kids and they can’t get to advertise in schools.
You can’t come in and blast the kids with advertising in those places, and these
books are actually getting the exact target age group."

There are, of  course, some critics who think the idea smacks of, well,
Sugar Smacks. "Some parents, educators and pediatricians object that the
books will engrave snack-food brands in toddlers impressionable minds, hook them
on junk food, and lead to eating problems later in life," Kirkpatrick
writes. 

- Christine Cupaiuolo