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Joel Bellman (who works for supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky but is writing for himself) has the "Counterpunch" in today's LAT Calendar arguing that the media has bought into a faux frenzy about Fahrenheit 9/11.
Too many in the media chose not to let facts get in the way of a good story. With almost touching naiveté, some foreign journalists actually seemed to believe the director's campfire ghost story that President Bush might personally succeed in suppressing his film.The circus continued, with most reporters siding with the shambling, stubbly filmmaking David over the ruthlessly on-message administration Goliath.
Film critics, not previously known for their sophisticated grasp of complex foreign-policy matters or subtleties of constitutional law, generally pronounced themselves thoroughly persuaded by Moore's message — which, one suspects, they thoroughly agreed with before setting foot in the screening room.
Moreover, nothing succeeds like success, and "Fahrenheit 9/11" is indisputably the most commercially successful documentary of all time — even if that only means, as New York Times columnist Frank Rich tartly noted, "that its ticket sales are whipping the bejesus out of 'Winged Migration' and 'Spellbound.' "
Bellman used to write and edit for the Herald Examiner and others. Also in Calendar, Lynell George visits with Jerry Stahl on the occasion of his new book I, Fatty, "a wisecracking, sepia-toned novelization of the chemical highs and legal lows of silent-film-era star Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and the more famous Hollywood scandal that undid him."
Actually Alien vs. Predator is Ann Coulter vs. Donna Brazille.
Nohting cofusing about it.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein at July 26, 2004 04:19 PMThe media are not singular.
Posted by: joseph at July 26, 2004 04:48 PMReally? Could have fooled me. But I suppose there's a difference between Far Right and Extremely Far Right.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein at July 26, 2004 04:56 PMOld fight I know, but here's the relevant part of what my American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language says on media:
Like other collective nouns, it may take a singular or plural verb, depending on the intended meaning. [Frequently], media stands as a singular noun for the aggregate of jurnalists and broadcasters.
It does, of course, acknowledge that many people regard this usage as incorrect.
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at July 26, 2004 06:28 PM
I like Jimmy Breslin's definition:
"Media" is the plural of "mediocre"...
Posted by: Brad Smith at July 26, 2004 09:08 PM
Referring to the dictionary here is like referring to a fetish ball for info about how an apron is most properly worn. But to think it through at community level: media can only be singular for people who don't include medium in their vocabulary. That can't possibly be true at a media site--can it?
You'd never say "print and broadcast medium" or "the media of radio." Media must be plural, and medium singular, if one is in the habit of using medium every so often and if one's own usage is to be consistent.
Posted by: joseph at July 26, 2004 10:18 PMActually, no. But I get your point. It was well elucidated in the dictionary's usage note that said go ahead and treat media as singular in some cases.
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at July 26, 2004 11:42 PMAt least I didn't get it wrong in my piece! After five years of trying to drill that distinction into my UCLA Extension writing students, I would have had to surrender my parking pass had I made the same mistake myself in print...
Posted by: Joel Bellman at July 27, 2004 07:03 AMConsistency in English usage is paramount for me, which is why I use the proper term "radio-frequency resonant heater" for our so-called "microwave" oven. Mixing Greek and Anglo-Saxon morphemes within one word is not proper English, is it?
Of course, hoi polloi who don't use classical Greek in their day-to-day lives will miss this distinction. Fortunately, I always write for an audience of one, and I am comforted to know that I'm not missing anything.
Posted by: Anonymous Pedant at July 27, 2004 12:55 PM
of LA Observed
The media didn't buy into the faux frenzy around F9/11... we created it. But we all do seem to have politics on the brain these days... Tony Scott on the politics of Harold & Kumer... just waiting for Frank Rich to turn Alien Vs Predator into Kerry vs. Bush or is that Bush vs. Kerry or is Bush both Alien and Predator and America is the human population? I'm so confused!
Posted by: David Poland at July 26, 2004 03:40 PM